How did the Bassano Leave Italy?

November 17 2021

Picture: Getty

Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:

The Italian Press having been asking the question of how Jacopo Bassano's The Miracle of the Quails was allowed to leave the country to be sold to the Getty Museum?

The Italian State, with its usually rather stringent exporting laws, has been asked exactly how a recognised masterpiece could have been exported without any consultation with experts. The painting was known to have been in the possession of the Florentine collector Vittorio Frascione between 1948 and 2006 and had purportedly even been offered for sale to the Uffizi at one point. Although there has been no suggestion of any illegality, the press are asking why the picture was not saved for the nation.

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