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April 5, 2008
Art stolen a while back - 1902
The Grand Rapids Art Museum is repatriating two panels stolen from a church in Abruzzo in 1902. Everyone is very congratulatory, but there's something a bit off:
Laurence Kanter, a leading scholar of Italian Renaissance Art in America, is the Lionel Goldfrank III Curator of Early European Art at Yale University and former Curator of the Robert Lehman Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He commented on the repatriation, "The action of the Grand Rapids Art Museum is commendable. These panels will have far greater meaning and importance in the context of their home region than they would in any international museum setting. The Italian scholars dedicated to this worthy project can now take a significant step toward realizing their goal.". . .
The Saint Eustace panels will be on view at the Grand Rapids Art Museum from April 8 through May 4 before their return to Italy to Il Museo Nazionale d'Abruzzo (The National Museum of Abruzzo).
(My emphases)
You see, they're not returning them to the church of Saint Eustace in Campo di Giove, Abruzzo, whence they were stolen in 1902, but to a museum in Aquila, the provincial capital. The art has been nationalized and denaturized. Yes, it will be nice that they're in Abruzzo, but there don't even seem to be any other pieces of the stolen altarpiece there with which to reunite them.
This is like the question of where the objects looted from Etruscan graves and sold to museums like the Met and the Boston MFA will end up. The Sarpedon Krater is going to the Villa Giulia in Rome, I've read. I'm not in favor of American museums keeping stolen goods, but it's worth remembering that an object stolen from a church is to be given to the state.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at April 5, 2008 10:58 AM