The life-size figure of St. Catherine of Alexandria, painted in Genoa around 1615 by Bernardo Strozzi, was installed Monday in the third floor galleries for European art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (Los Angeles County Museum of Art / November 25, 2013)
Los Angeles Times art critic Christopher Knight has an amazing story about a Bernardo Strozzi painting, St. Catherine of Alexandria, that has recently been donated to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). According to Knight: [The] Nazi-looted Baroque masterpiece … turned up on the art market five years ago [and] was returned Friday to its owner.” Here are some of the many interesting highlights:
The restitution of the Strozzi by an Italian court was made to Philippa Calnan, the original owner’s sole direct descendant. Calnan, a retired public affairs director at LACMA and the J. Paul Getty Trust, is making the gift to the museum.
[…]
The painting is among Strozzi’s supreme early achievements. It disappeared after the 1943 Nazi occupation of Florence, one of nearly a dozen works stolen from the collection assembled by Charles A. Loeser, an American expatriate and heir to a Brooklyn department store fortune. Loeser moved to Italy in 1890 and died in 1928.
[…]
Sotheby’s was approached about accepting the painting for auction, but research into its provenance, or history of ownership, identified its status as Nazi plunder. The auction house notified Italian police and contacted Calnan, Loeser’s granddaughter.
The painting had by then been jointly bought by Marco Voena and Fabrizio Moretti, Old Master art dealers with galleries in Milan, Florence, London and New York. Calnan was blocked by the Italian courts from obtaining an export license for what was deemed a national treasure. She appealed the ruling.
[…]
The Strozzi is one of two Loeser works looted by the Nazis to resurface. Last year, a gold-ground Sienese devotional altar by the Master of the Richardson Triptych (circa 1370-1415) [below] was retrieved by the FBI from Moretti’s Manhattan gallery. Like the Strozzi, it was listed in the Lost Art database. In excellent condition given its age and tumultuous history, “The Virgin and Child Enthroned With Angels and Saints, the Redeemer and the Annunciation” is also on loan to LACMA.
Master of The Richardson Triptych (Siena c. 1370-1415) Enthroned Virgin and Child with Angels and Saints; the Redeemer; the Annunciation. Tempera on panel. 30½ x 229/16 in, 77.5 x 57.4 cm open.
(Moretti Fine Art)
