The Museum of Fine Arts Boston follows suit with the Getty and Metropolitan Museum by agreeing to return an unspecified number of artworks possibly acquired through inappropriate means to the Italian Govenment. In exchange, the Italian Government will loan the MFA objects of comparable quality in a "cultural exchange".
It seems that unscrupulous sources have been acquiring artworks for some time now destined for US museums as sources of acquisitions are continuing to come under criminal investigation. Sad to hear that the equation "art like commodities = financial gain" continues to motivate inappropriate theft and trade in the art world.
Link: MFA agrees to return disputed art to Italy - The Boston Globe.
Aside from publicity - why is high profile art ever acquired without a check on its provenance? A simple announcement should take care of it. Without a check it has to be either a payoff or a coverup of some corrupt transactions.
Posted by: Arthur Browning | July 29, 2006 at 04:58 AM