The painting “Caritas romana” by Artemisia Gentileschi has been brought back to Italy
Commissioned to the Roman painter of the Caravaggesque school around the middle of the seventeenth century, he had managed to reach Vienna where he was found by the carabinieri of the cultural heritage protection nucleus of Bari
BARI – They had managed to get him across the Italian border thanks to a Tuscan brokerage agency concealing the attribution to the Italian painter of the Caravaggesque school Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – 1653) and declaring a price lower than over two million euros in value. Like this, “Roman Caritas”this is the name of the painting, he had managed to reach Vienna where he was found by the carabinieri of the cultural heritage protection nucleus of Bari who brought him back to Italy after a two-year investigation.
The painting is part of the large art collection of Count Giangirolamo II Acquaviva d’Aragona (1600 – 1665), who had commissioned it to the Roman painter around the middle of the seventeenth century. The owners have entrusted it to an Austrian auction house to maximize the economic revenue deriving from the sale abroad of thework that would thus have been definitively and irremediably removed from the Italian cultural heritage.
The suspects are two, the ones who – according to the ministry the suspects – have failed to declare to the Export Office of Culture in Genoa, the link between the work and the Castle of Conversano in which it was kept. Like this obtained obtained a certificate of free circulation, however, flawed “by the erroneous representation and evaluation of the facts placed on the basis of the decision of the Advisory Commission “. Document then canceled with subsequent repatriation order of the work. An order that was not respected by decreeing the adoption of measures aimed at “preventing the dispersion, displacement, transfer or alienation of the property, now destined for sale at auction, subtracting it from the Italian cultural heritage”.
The military, after tracing the painting in an auction house in Vienna, subjected it to seizure in execution of a freezing order (hence the name of the operation) provided for by the European regulation 1805/2018 and issued by the Bari prosecutor. . Crucial – the investigators explain – was the support of the Italian embassy in Austria, the Austrian police and Eurojust. The Superintendence of Fine Arts and Landscape Archeology for the Metropolitan City of Bari will proceed to the technical findings on the canvas, in synergy with the specialized ministerial institutes. However, a probative incident was requested.
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