You have to go around the world to find the Italian artistic heritage, legacy of the greatest local painters, sculptors and artists. It's not just the Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci at the Louvre in Paris, it's not just the Battle of San Romano by Paolo Uccello or Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio both at the National Gallery in London, or even The Three Graces by Antonio Canova preserved in the Museum of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
According to the journalist Salvatore Giannella in his book "Operation Rescue" are 1653 pieces – 800 paintings, dozens of sculptures, carpets, musical instruments and hundreds of manuscripts – who never returned to the peninsula.
The story is long and tormented and has seen the directors of museums and courts as protagonists. One of the latest episodes is very recent and features the German director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence who has launched an appeal to his native Germany to ask for the return of an Italian work stolen from the Tuscan capital by the Nazis at the time of the Second World War: it is Jan van Huysum's Vase of Flowers. “Due to this event which affects the heritage of the Uffizi Galleries, the wounds of the Second World War and of Nazi terror have not yet healed,” explained Schmidt, “Germany should abolish the statute of limitations for works stolen during the conflict and so that they can return to their rightful owners".
Last November, the Gup of the Court of Bologna ordered the confiscation of eight paintings painted by artists of the caliber of Titian, Tintoretto and Carpaccio, which were stolen from the artistic heritage of the beautiful country by the Nazis on behalf of the Reich Marshal Hermann Goering now preserved in the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade. The Bologna prosecutor's office aims to obtain the return of the works of art, but the Serbian authorities have already taken action, rejecting the letters rogatory from the Italian prosecutors.
But it's not over. There is also an ongoing controversy with the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles which preserves the victorious Athlete, a bronze about one and a half meters high dating back to the 1964th century BC and attributed to the Greek artist Lisippo, found in 3,5 in the waters of the Adriatic by a group of Italian fishermen who promptly thought of burying it in a camp instead of notifying the authorities. Since then, the bronze has been purchased for XNUMX million lire by the entrepreneur Giacomo Barbetti, then it passed into the hands of a Milanese antique dealer, then into those of the art dealer Heinz Herzer of Munich, perhaps even a Brazilian one, and finally to the Artemis Fine Art Gallery in London, before being acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1977 for $3,98 million.
The battle for the victorious Athlete between Rome and Los Angeles has been going on for over ten years. In particular, the pronouncements of the Court of Pesaro for the confiscation of the work from the American museum date back to 2009 and 2013, both times, however, annulled due to procedural defects raised by the Getty. Last year, the piece was back on display in the new museum layout and the court ordered for the third time the confiscation of the asset "wherever it is".
The J. Paul Getty Museum did not give up and has continued to claim their right to the victorious Athlete: “We have a right linked to the statue. This is of Ancient Greek origin, was found in international waters in 1964 and purchased by the Getty in 1977, years after Italy's highest court, the Corte di Cassazione, concluded in 1968 that there was no evidence that it belonged to the Italy. The statue is not and has never been part of the Italian artistic heritage. Accidental discovery by Italian citizens does not make it an Italian object. We believe that any form of forfeiture is contrary to American and international law,” said Lisa Lapin, vice president of communications at the Getty.
