There has been some talk in the last couple of days of the Italian authorities releasing certain photographic images. It should be remembered that some of these images were available from the Carabinieri website back in 1999 - a fact noted in January 2010
interview with Marion True in
The Art Newspaper.
Medici had maintained files of photographs of objects in museums and private collections around the world. These images, some showing sculptures just excavated and dirt still clinging to the surfaces of vases in fragments, were unknown until some were published on the carabinieri website in 1999.
I do not understand why some North American lawyers are insisting that the Italians should release what they had already shared.
3 comments:
I think the problem is that most people don't know where they are available, so perhaps you'd be kind enough to post a link.
Of course you understand why. The Italians cynically pulled down the Medici images they had posted when they decided they could get more press mileage out of surprising innocent collectors and auction houses who happen to acquire one of the pieces in the photos. And they then provided you with a full set of these images so that you could assist them - a fact you refuse to acknowledge.
So now you smugly admonish collectors and dealers to more carefully research the provenance of objects before acquiring them, while hypocritically withholding important information that would facilitate that research.
Rick Witschonke
I have read on this blog and else where that the images were on the Carabinieri website. No? If so, anyone with the intention could have downloaded these images, or any other electronic data for that matter. My 6-year old could have done this, you don't need to be an archaeologist or a coin collector. As for "the Italians" taking down the images, isn't it their right to do so. or must they seek permission to appease conspiracy theorists?
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