Saturday 3 March 2018

Ex Almagià Apulian krater at Fordham University


Among the returns from the Cleveland Museum of Art was a pair of Etruscan silver bracelets that were derived from Edoardo Almagià. Then there was a major return from the Princeton University Art Museum that contained numerous pieces derived from Almagià (discussion here). The Dallas Museum of Art decided to investigate its collections and returned ex Almagià to Italy (discussion here). And other museums have ex Almagià material: Boston Museum of Fine Art, Indiana University Art Museum, Tampa Museum of Art. Chasing Aphrodite has added material in the San Antonio Museum of Art.

Among the items in the Walsh collection at Fordham University is an Apulian volute-krater attributed to the Virginia Exhibition painter (inv. 8.001). The catalogue entry does not appear to provide a statement about the kraters' history. However, the krater is currently on view at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (VMFA), and the catalogue entry helpfully states: "Ex. coll. Edouardo [sic.] Almagiá [sic.]; Arte Primitivo, 1994; Gift of William Walsh, 2006".

Can I suggest that the curatorial teams at Fordham and VMFA contact the Italian authorities to check the background to this krater?

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1 comment:

David Gill said...

https://www.nysun.com/arts/fordham-opens-museum-of-classical-art/67604/

When Ms. Udell, who is 44, was asked by The New York Sun about the possibility of restitution claims, her tone was rather different from that of her old boss. If the government of a host country came forward with a claim to an object, she said, "[M]y attitude — which I learned at the Met — is, if it's a legitimate claim, we're happy to work with the government and repatriate it."

She added: "It's all part of the process. You put [the collection] out there and make it accessible and make it transparent, and if it goes back, it goes back."

Not that she would be pleased to see anything go. "If the carabinieri called me and said, 'We want the volute krater by the Virginia Exhibition Painter back,' it would suck," she said, referring to one of the collection's prized objects. "But you've got to be open about this, especially about objects that were collected [before the standards were agreed upon]. I wouldn't be happy about it, but I would be a lot happier doing the right thing, [which is] the legal thing."

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