Stolen masterpieces recovered!
March 19 2012
Picture: AHT
Or perhaps not? There was a flurry of excitement in the press recently when it was announced that police in Rome had recovered 37 stolen masterpieces, by, amongst others, Rubens, Van Dyck, and Poussin. However, the image used to illustrate the Van Dyck manifestly did not show a picture by Van Dyck, so I didn't get that excited. And over on Art History Today, art historian and Poussin scholar Dr David Packwood casts doubt on the 'Poussin':
A clumsy composition- and those cherubs! As I spent a lot of time in my doctorate days looking at religious paintings by NP, I think I’m qualified to pronounce on this. So the owners bought a picture they thought was by Poussin, and the thieves stole it thinking the same? My guess is an Italianate painter trying to emulate Poussin, not very successfully. Or it could be a collaboration between Gaspar Poussin- Poussin’s brother-in-law-and an Italian artist? But the figures are too monumental for Gaspard, yet parts of the landscape recall NP.
