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Grand Rapids Art Museum Returned Two Works14th-century Religious Panel Paintings Repatriated to ItalyThe Grand Rapids Art Museum in Michigan announced plans on April 4, 2008 to return two late 14-century panel paintings to Italy's National Museum of Abruzzo.
Part of a 16-piece altarpiece with an effigy from the Church of Saint Eustace in Campo di Giove, Abruzzo, Italy, they were stolen in 1902. The GRAM acquired the two works in 1947; its curators at the time were unaware that they were previously purloined. Saint Eustace and the AltarpiecePainted by the late 14th-century anonymous Abruzzese Master of Castelvecchio Subequo, the altarpiece included scenes from the life of Saint Eustace. Originally named Placidus, the Roman general experienced a miraculous vision of Christ in a stag's horns while hunting in Campo di Giove's mountains of Abruzzo and nearby Lazio. The Christian convert was later martyred by the order of Emperor Hadrian (76-138 A.D.). Pope Clement III (r. 1187-1191) dedicated Campo di Giove's church to Saint Eustace, the region's adopted patron saint, on April 7, 1188. The GRAM's pair of tempera on wood panels illustrate the Conversion of Saint Eustace and the Flight of Saint Eustace from a Plague-ridden City. Provenance ResearchRome's State Central Archive possesses a letter from Italy's Department of the Interior Police to the Department of Education, dated December 18, 1902, indicating that the Saint Eustace Altarpiece had been stolen from the church named after him. Two of the 16 panels were recovered in the mid-1920s when they appeared for sale on the Parisian art market. New York's E.A. Silberman Galleries sold two panels from the collection of Austrian Count Vetter Vander Lilie, a pre-World War II emigrant to the United States, to the GRAM in 1947. In lieu of cash payment, the museum exchanged its miniature Tragic Jocasta by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) for the two Saint Eustace paintings. They were subsequently cleaned and conserved. RepatriationUniversity of Michigan Professor Marvin Eisenberg published the definitive study of the Saint Eustace Altarpiece in 1978. Italian graduate student Luca Nicoletti subsequently contacted GRAM Director Celeste Adams regarding his reconstruction of the work when he needed images of the museum's panels. After serious consultation with scholars in Abruzzo, a written request by Italy's government and consultation with lawyers from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the GRAM's Board of Trustees prudently decided to repatriate the pair of panels. The works were last on display at the Grand Rapids Art Museum from April 8 to May 4, 2008. Director Adams was quoted as having said, "Repatriation of documented stolen works is an enormously important issue for museums today. We cared for these works of art as good museum stewards for 60 years, and they can now become an important cultural asset for their home region. As a former University of Michigan student of Marvin Eisenberg, I am pleased to be the person handling the return of the panels.”
The copyright of the article Grand Rapids Art Museum Returned Two Works in Curating Art is owned by Stan Parchin. Permission to republish Grand Rapids Art Museum Returned Two Works in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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