NEWS and COMMENT

NEWS and COMMENT

EDX, IRR, XRF and the Return of Connoisseurship
Leonardo da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks is once again on permanent display at the National Gallery in London. Its ravishing beauty, both of composition and colouring revealed after 18 month's cleaning and conservation. It has a new and quietly beautiful carved and gilded frame based on the work of Giacomo Del Maino, who made the original grand altarpiece for a Confraternity chapel in Milan which the painting had been commissioned from Leonardo in 1483 to fit.

The baldness of these facts obscure the importance of the results of lengthy scientific and curatorial studies of the London painting, including many discussions with colleagues overseas, as well as consideration of its relationship to an earlier version that hangs in the Paris Louvre. The differences between the two have suggested to many scholars hitherto that the London painting was not wholly the work of Leonardo. This is now contradicted by the discovery beneath the painting of two original under-drawings. The first reveals a design that Leonardo chose not to execute; and while the second corresponds to the picture we see, nonetheless shows that the artist changed his mind on several occasions – leaving some parts unfinished, others not fully realized.

None of these discoveries in an way affects the glory of the painting as we now see it – all they do is reinforce its fascinating history. Leonardo was commissioned by the Milanese Confraternity at the height of his fame when he knew his own worth and was very busy indeed. Subsequently, he fell out with the Confraternity over the price and unilaterally sold its version privately sometime in the 1490s; following the intervention of arbitrators Leonardo painted a new picture which was finally installed in 1508 - after twenty-five year's delay. His first painting is the one in the Louvre and the second that now hanging in the National Gallery in Room 2 – hard by is Leonardo's near miraculous drawing of The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist.

Downstairs in the Gallery's Sainsbury Wing there is a related exhibition – related in that it reveals (literally) the importance of scientific and scholarly researches into the physical properties of some paintings in the national collection. Therein (until 12 September) we are introduced to the importance and significance of such instruments and techniques as EDX (energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer); IRR (infrared reflectography); and XRF (X-ray fluorescence). Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries uses a dozen or so paintings to prove for example that a late 15th century Italian portrait of a man and two children acquired for the nation in 1923 is in fact a genuine 20th century fake. On the other hand a painting of Saint Francis with Angels acquired in 1858 as by Filippino Lippi one of Botticelli's assistants, is now clearly shown to be by the the master himself.

In recent times the idea of a “connoisseur” has become derided by many scholars as too subjective and so inherently unreliable. The term is defined in the exhibition's highly informative catalogue as “an expert knowledgeable about a wide range of art and able to recognize characteristics of individual or regional styles.” Whereas “connoisseurship” is described as “a stylistic attribution of a painting, usually made in conjunction with technical or historical research.” (My italics.) One can only surmise in the context of this exhibition that it was the application of connoisseurship that led to the discovery (rediscovery) by a National Gallery curator in 1991 of a genuine painting by Raphael, his gem-like Madonna of the Pinks, long regarded as a copy and left to hang in a corridor of one of Britain's grandest historic houses. Dating from about 1506, the picture was eventually and triumphantly acquired for the nation in 2004. Contrariwise, perhaps it was an unhindered, un-scientifically qualified dependence on connoisseurship in the past that led the Gallery to purchase a 'Rembrandt' which isn't, and earlier on a 'Holbein' which wasn't.

The successful restoration of the Virgin of the Rocks has directly inspired a major indeed unparalled international loan exhibition to be held next year at the National Gallery: Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan. This will include several of his very rare extant paintings as well as the finest drawings by Leonardo and his followers, plus a near-contemporary, full-scale copy of Leonardo's Last Supper loaned by the Royal Academy with all his surviving preliminary drawings for this masterwork.
Note the dates whatever else you do: 9 November 2011 – 5 February 2012.
National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DN. Tel. +44 (0)20 7747 2885. (Open daily; late Fri) www.nationalgallery.org.uk

Indian History in the Making – Kalwant Roy's News Photography
Kalwant Roy was a pioneer of photo-journalism in India. Born in 1914, he learnt his craft in the 1930s at the Gopal brothers studio in Lahore on the borders of modern-day India and Pakistan. This location, that significant era and his own interests offered him the opportunity of photographing many of the personalities whose political activities and nationalist ideals eventually culminated in independence for India in 1947 and the consequent partition. These included Mohammad Ali Jinner, who became the first President of Pakistan; Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister and, not least, Mahatma Gandhi, leader of the Indian National Congress.

Kalwant Roy died in 1984 in Delhi to where 40 years before he had moved his own agency, the Associated Photo Service. He worked until the late 1970s when he was diagnosed with cancer already feeling out of sympathy with the aggressive hurly-burly of modern-day photo-journalism. Shy and reclusive, Roy never married and just before his death handed over files of all his work to the young Aditya Arya, a great-nephew of the Gopal brothers, and an aspiring photographer, whose parents welcomed “Mamaji” daily into their home for a sustaining meal. In recent years, Aditya Arya has come to realise the importance and significance of the archive of his family's friend and with the historian Indivar Kamtekar set about making a selection of some 500 black and white images, now published by Harper Collins India in a finely produced hardback book for £65.00 with the title History in the Making: The Visual Archives of Kalwant Roy.

This large and handsome volume is a worthy tribute to its subject, complicated only perhaps for non-Indian readers by the (understandable) decision to caption each photograph with Kalwant Roy's own words. Without further explanation, this leads me anyhow shamefully struggling to recognize the real national and international importance of many persons shown. Lord Mountbatten, last Viceroy of India, may be obvious, but what of Sardar Patel? [India's first Deputy Prime Minister.] Of Rajendra Prasad? [the Republic's first President.] Of Vijaylakshmi Pandit? [the first woman President of the United Nations General Assembly.] Nonetheless here are the great in unguarded moments, as well as artisans proudly posed, the Indian masses in all their variety, plus many important national events.

As well as Kalwant Roy's photographs and Aditya Arya's affectionate memoir, the book includes some especially interesting essays, notably one by Indivar Kamtekar who challenges us to remember that these images represent a particular view, not only of the photographer but the optimism of the time for the people and their leaders. He points out for example that “the government of independent India tried to show that it was built on the wreckage of colonialism, rather than [more truthfully] on the foundations provided by the colonial state.” He suggests, just as controversially, that “one reason” why the Bengal Famine of 1943 in which three million people died “is rarely given its due emphasis in Indian history” may be because it “was not central to Indian nationalism” concluding starkly that another reason for its comparative neglect “is that famine only affected the poor.”

Another essay by Sonam Joshi and Aditya Arya explores the development and history of photo-journalism in India, from the “idealistic visions” of such as Kalwant Roy to the far more critical interpretations adopted by his successors, consequent upon “a loss of faith in the institutions of the state.” Which being said, what might Kalwant Roy himself have made of India today? Its burgeoning, increasingly wealthy middle classes now numbering more than the entire population of the United States...

Coincidentally all this anyhow is the context for an important new cultural agreement between India and the United Kingdom which over the next five years aims to develop an active programme of cultural co-operation. The two governments have committed themselves to facilitating the exchange of exhibitions and reciprocal visits and, most interestingly, to collaborate on skills sharing as well, not least, in the bringing together of dispersed collections through the digitising of missing parts in libraries and archives.

Charles Saatchi, Jeremy Hunt, Stonehenge and UK Cultural 'Cuts'
Barely six months in office, the UK's new Secretary of State for Culture Jeremy Hunt and his team have been making swingeing cuts in the Department's budget and generally frightening the nation's cultural horses. All of this reflecting the Government's determination to (dramatically) reduce the UK's fiscal deficit.

One startling decision has been to cancel the long and expensively planned and long-needed Stonehenge Visitor Centre aimed at improving the general ambience of this famous and much-visited 5,000 years old pre-historic monument. Well, after so long, a few more years' wait is bearable. Ironically, hardly had the ink been dry on the Department's edict, archaeologists discovered a new 'old' henge within sight of Stonehenge itself, a circular ditch “which probably enclosed a ring of timber posts and may have been used for feasting,” reported Maev Kennedy in The Guardian. This discovery was made “without a sod of earth being dug up” by an international team barely started on fieldwork for a three-year Stonehenge Hidden Landscape project.

Another, if less obviously dramatic decision, has been to abolish the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) which has responsibility for many nationally vital cultural services including the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme, the Export Licensing Reviewing Committee (for both see below) and, not least the successful Renaissance in the Regions project. Nonetheless we're promised that “Government support for museums, libraries and archives will continue.” Let's hope this proves to be the case. Not for nothing is the MLA currently led by an exceptionally level-headed and far-sighted pair: its Chair is the poet Sir Andrew Motion and its Chief Executive Roy Clare, a retired naval admiral who in a joint statement headed “stormy seas call for cool heads and steady hands” pledged “a smooth and orderly transition” in the face of very difficult times ahead for all concerned.

Jeremy Hunt has made it clear from the beginning of his reign that he expects private patronage to take a bigger role in supporting the arts in future: “Philanthropy is central to our vision of a thriving cultural sector” he was quoted in FlashArtonline.com when responding to the spectacular news that Charles Saatchi has decided to donate his magnificent London gallery (already open to the public free) to the nation, together with his astonishing art collection - estimated to be worth $37.5 million. This later is devoted to work by emerging artists the world over: a difficult and challenging premise for 'state' institutions to fulfil.

Well, you can't look for a better example of philanthropy than that? On the other hand, the Directors of the UK's National Museums have felt compelled to point out to the Government the dangers inherent in the 25% to 40% cuts being discussed. “You can cut us but don't kill us,” they assert. “New giving,” they claim, “cannot be expected to make good immediate shortfalls.” They emphasize that “the arts are a great British success story. The UK has the largest cultural economy in the world relative to GDP, and every £1 invested in culture produces £2.” In the event and thanks once again to FlashArtonline.com the reduction can be seen as relatively light overall, with the nation's major cultural institutions losing in general only three percent of their total funding. Quite enough, but not so bad when it is remembered that the public funding received by the largest is counted in many millions of pounds a year each.

Saved for the Nation – in a Variety of Ways
In the last days of the last government, its then Culture Minister Margaret Hodge, trumpeted quite rightly the success of successive UK government's use of the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme (AIL). The occasion was the allocation to the Courtauld of an elegant bronze sculpture by Edgar Degas Dancer looking a the Sole of her right Foot, dating from the 1890s. Its new home is singularly appropriate not only for its fine collection of French 19th century art but for the fact that the bronze had been bought in 1923 by Samuel Courtauld himself who formed and later gave this great collection to the nation.

AIL's terms have been quietly and beneficially extended in recent years and the Scheme is now administered on behalf of the Government by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA). Mrs Hodge graphically describes the AIL Scheme as “a classic win-win-win. The owner doesn't need to find the cash to pay their [inheritance] tax bill, the Government is able to take fabulous works of art and heritage items into public ownership at a fair price, and the taxpayer knows that the things saved will remain where they belong, in this country on public show, for all time.” The Degas bronze for example settled a tax bill of £175,000.

London's National Gallery has also been a recent beneficiary of the AIL scheme through the allocation to its collection of a 'monumental' despite its small size, Still-Life of Flowers in a Wan-Li Vase by the Dutch flower painter Ambrosius Bosschaert The Elder (1773 – 1621). Presently it is neatly on show (in Gallery 17A) with a delicious and tiny masterpiece, Flowers in a Glass Vase by the same artist and of a similar early 17th century date, which was given in memory of the dealer Edward Speelman in 1994. Nonetheless, it is hardly surprising that visitors to this room, which is full of flower paintings, are always puzzled by its many labels which do not explain what the AIL Scheme actually means.

The important and little-regarded work of the UK government's independent Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA) which is also administered by MLA and is often mentioned in these columns (see for example “Threatened with Export” below) but for some reason its successes are seldom publicized. One spectacular example, certainly in terms of size and subject, is currently on show in Room 32 of London's National Gallery. By the Italian master Domenico Zampieri (1581 – 1641) known as Domenichino and painted in the 1620s it shows Saint John the Evangelist in a “serene” yet “heroic” pose, a depiction of divine inspiration that Gallery curator Dawson Carr states was a “mainstay of Baroque artists,” this example being not only “one of the greatest” of the artist's easel paintings but “the best work by the artist remaining in private hands.”

Last December the painting was sold to an overseas buyer at auction for £9.2 million. Its export was deferred on the advice of RCEWA in the hopes that a UK institution would be able to raise matching funds which, in this instance was not the case. Under the terms of the so-called “Ridley Rules” however, any work temporarily barred from export by the Reviewing Committee can be offered to a UK private buyer able to purchase it for the same price – and willing to agree to its regular public display. An anonymous private collector has now acquired the Domenchino painting and accordingly loaned it for display at the National Gallery for 18 months – until that is the end of 2011.

Nelson's Victory in Trafalgar Square
It needed both wit and wisdom to propose putting Nelson's flagship HMS Victory in a Bottle atop the empty Fourth Plinth in London's Trafalgar Square. It's creator Yinka Shonibare has plenty of both. But first the facts. His model Nelson's Ship in a Bottle is a 1:30 scale replica, overall 3.25 x 5 m. (7 x 11 ft.) made from oak with brass fittings, carrying 80 cannon, 37 canvas sails and flying Lord Nelson's final signal “engage the enemy closely” as well as wearing his admiral's white ensign. This 'bottle' is in perspex. On the base of the plinth the artist describes his sculpture as “honouring the many cultures and ethnicities that are still breathing precious wind into the sails of the United Kingdom.”

The model's brightly coloured sails are startling and significant, evoking the designs worn with such aplomb by so many African peoples and which have become something of a trademark for this artist's always delightfully subversive work. Yinka Shonibare was born in London in 1962 and raised in Nigeria. Schooled in the UK, he completed his art education at Goldsmiths where, he told Rachel Cooke in The Observer, a tutor provoked him to visit the Museum of Mankind. There he discovered that the characteristically effervescent African batik known as Dutch wax in fact originated in colonial Indonesia but failed to sell when manufactured in the Netherlands, and instead was successfully exported to West Africa from where it spread throughout the continent. Shonibare further explains his idea: “Nelson's victory freed up the seas for the British and that led in turn, to the building of the British Empire. But in a way, his victory created the London we know today: an exciting, diverse multicultural city.” For the Fourth Plinth, “I wanted to do a serious thing for a serious space, but I also wanted it to be exciting, magical and playful.”

In the midst of Trafalgar Square, Nelson's column itself stands 145 ft. high. It is surmounted by a 17 ft. tall stone statue of the admiral who gazes over the horizon to the great naval seaport of Portsmouth and its Historic Dockyard where his flagship HMS Victory is permanently dry-docked for all the world to see. As well as that marvellous late 18th century “wooden wall” present-day visitors can also clamber aboard HMS Warrior built in 1860, the world's first iron-hulled, steam powered warship which is across the hard from the Mary Rose Museum. Mary Rose was a favourite warship of King Henry VIII; heavily armoured she sank off Portsmouth in 1545 during an engagement with a French invasion fleet. One side of her hull was discovered in the 1970s and spectacularly raised to the surface in 1982 afterwards being transferred for intricate archaeological conservation to a specially constructed shelter on public view. Presently Mary Rose herself is hidden until 2012 when visitors will be able to see the ship again in a new building together with a reconstruction of her missing side.

The Mary Rose Museum is the fascinating and family-friendly repository of thousands of artefacts, personal and professional, large and small, recovered from the wreck. Currently, until 17 October it also includes a temporary exhibition Mapping Portsmouth's Tudor Past showing important 16th century manuscript maps and charts from the British Library, The UK Hydrographic Office and the Admiralty Library. One large chart of the harbour mysteriously includes a compass rose, its northward-pointing fleur de lis immediately lying over the wreck site of the Mary Rose. www.historicdockyard.co.uk

Masterpiece London – Already a Masterpiece
Trying to write about a great new Fair after the event is rather like trying to describe a rose after the petals have fallen. Nonetheless Masterpiece London 2010 lived up to its title and billing, attracting some 18,000 visitors over seven days, many exceptional sales and looking overall a dream: elegant and stylish with spacious stands and aisles, air conditioning throughout, polite and attentive stewards and not least a truly exceptional array of exhibits shown by some of the world's best dealers. The fact that it was all conceived and realised, as well as expertly and discreetly organized (and vetted) in barely twelve months, is as remarkable, as was the outcome spectacular.

Held in a magnificent temporary structure at the former Chelsea Barracks from 24 – 29 June, this new fair grew out of the sudden closure in 2009 of the venerable Grosvenor House Fair. A small group of important dealers led by Thomas Woodham-Smith of Mallett, with Harry Apter from Apter-Fredericks, Simon Phillips from Ronald Phillips and Robert Procop from Asprey, was joined by Harry van der Hoorn of the stand-builders Stabilo, to give firm foundation to the idea of creating a brand new fair in London, one not only worthy of the city's reputation as a major centre for the sale of important examples of fine and decorative arts, but in its own right worth visiting - as well as being seen at. Much is expected by those who inhabit or seek to inhabit the top end of the art market, so it was no surprise to find Harry's Bar at the centre of the fair with other inner necessary accompaniments close at hand such as Le Caprice, Scotts and The Ivy. Next year Masterpiece London may be able to move to the grounds of the Royal Hospital nearby. Undoubtedly anyhow it will be bigger, as the enfolding building seems capable of substantial extension.

Some notion of the originality and standard of what was on offer is suggested by The Sladmore Gallery's stand which was awarded Best in Fair. It focused on the Bugatti Family with examples of furniture by Carlo, sculpture by his son Rembrandt, and a totally up to date Veyron Supercar representing a development of the design ideas of Etorre himself.

'Trust New Art' An Exemplary Initiative
Nothing if not continually enterprising these days, the National Trust has joined with Arts Council England to launch 'Trust New Art' a three-year contemporary programme to “make contemporary arts and crafts an integral part” of the visitors' experience. Tom Freshwater, the energetic and enthusiastic Contemporary Arts Programme Manager at the the National Trust, explains the thinking by rightly pointing out that this idea is not so startling as it may seem at first, for its continues the “practice begun by [the original] owners of our sites and properties who were art patrons of their time.” Those National Trust properties already involved are: Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire; Tatton Park, Cheshire; Calke Abbey, Derbyshire; and Kedleston Hall, also in Derbyshire, each with a project on show more or less until the end of their opening seasons this year.

Chinese Painting and Ringo Starr's Gold Drum
Earlier this year the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, opened a new installation Mastering the Art of Chinese Painting: Xie Zhilu explaining how Chinese artists learned their delicate craft from past masters and from their own direct experience of nature. All these mysteries have been revealed as a consequence of the generous gift to the museum by his daughter Sarah Shay of a large collection of paintings, sketches, drawings, calligraphies and poetry manuscripts by Xie Zhiliu (1910 – 1997) one of modern China's most important artists and connoisseurs, an adviser also to the great Shanghai Museum.

As for Ringo Starr, whose gold plated drum is on loan to the Met until the end of the year: this display not only celebrates his status as a drummer (and his 70th birthday – can this be possible?) but emphasizes the significance of the Ludwig Drum Company of Chicago, the most important manufacturer in the 20th century, which presented this specially-made snare drum to the musician during the Beatles' 1964 visit to the city, in the course of their first US tour.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028. Tel. +1 212 535 7710. (Open Tues - Sun; late Fri & Sat).

Caring for Your Collection(s)
What is or are the right way, or ways, to look after your collection, your most prized possessions? Whose advice, amid much offered and seemingly everywhere available, can you really trust in these important matters? None better surely than the many and various experts of the British Antique Dealers Association (BADA). Apart from anything else, its members have in their care antiques and works of art together worth in money terms many times more than a King's ransom and of an unsurpassed general quality; in other words it pays each and every BADA member to look after what they (temporarily) own in nothing less than the best of all possible ways.

Founded in 1918 and of unrivalled reputation, the BADA punches well above its apparent weight, with only some 350 UK dealers judged (very strictly by their peers) to be worthy of membership. Deservedly proud of its reputation not only for the expertise of is members but for the way in which they assist and continue to assist their customers, the BADA has for a number of years offered advice to the public about caring for their purchases. Now all the information has been brought together in a small and handsome illustrated booklet The Care of Antiques and Works of Art. Within 64 pages it offers sage professional advice, clearly expressed, on such subjects as: valuations and security, and in a series of individual sections on how to look after for example furniture, pictures, clocks, ceramics and glass, jewellery, silver, brass and copper, sculpture, carpets and antiquarian books. Sponsored by Besso Insurance, copies of this absolutely necessary publication are available free (yes, free) from BADA members, from BADA stands at Fairs, or direct from the BADA's London offices: 20 Rutland Gate, London SW7 1BD. Tel. +44(0)20 7581 0375. www.bada.org.

Threatened with Export: £14.5 million's worth of National Treasures
With barely enough time to have got his feet under his desk, the UK government's new Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has been faced with five recommendations by the independent Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest to place temporary export bars on several of the nation's treasures.

The first, in terms of obvious attraction anyhow, is an exceptionally tender Madonna and Child painted in the early 1650s by the Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo and unusual in the way he has pictured the babe looking his shy mother fully in the face. Since 1978 the painting has been loaned for the public's delectation to the Birmingham City Art Gallery and then from 2002 to 2008 to the National Galleries of Scotland. Priced at £3 million the picture has barred from export until 18 September 2010 with a possible extension until 18 January 2011.

A mid 16^th Century Stoneware Tankard, less than six inches high, even one with silver-gilt mounts, is probably harder to appreciate immediately but the example in question is exceptionally interesting historically. Dating from the reign of King Edward VI, it bears the London hallmarks for 1550, the so far unidentified maker's mark IC, and an inscription in English quoting Christ's words to the Samaritan woman, as recorded in St John's Gospel: “BVT + WHO: DRYNKETH: OF THE WATRER: OF LYF + SHALL NEVER + THYRSTE: AG[AIN]. The armorials on the cover are of the Warde family and the date of its making suggest that its first owner was Thomas Warde who in 1550 went up from Eton to King's College, Cambridge later becoming physician to Queen Elizabeth I and her successor King James I. That the Biblical inscription is in English, the language of the Protestant reformers, confirms their spreading influence among the increasingly wealthy middle classes. Priced at £179,787.50 the tankard has been barred from export until 10 August 2010 with a possible extension until 10 November.

Undoubtedly spectacular, and less than half the size of the tankard at only 6.9 cm, is a previously unknown gold gem-set tiger's head finial from the throne of Tipu Sultan made and set with diamonds, rubies and emeralds between 1787 and 1793 in his Royal Workshops. Tipu was Sultan of Mysore from 1782; a far-sighted and innovative administrator he was also a ferociously successful general who inflicted a humiliating defeat on the British in India at Pollilur in 1780 capturing more than 7,000 men and unknown numbers of women. In 1799 later after a horrendous siege he was killed at Seringapatam which was followed by an orgy of looting, rape and killing. After his death, what was left of his possessions and treasury – including the metalwork and jewellery he prized above all else and which he had caused to be made – was dispersed at auction by the Prize Committee. The Royal Tiger was Tipu's personal emblem and this example, priced at £389,600 has been barred from export until 15 August 2010 with a possible extension until 15 November 2010.

William Burges (1827 – 1821) was one of the most astonishing of the architects working in the Victorian period in England whose own talents and energy led him to design interiors, jewellery, plate and textiles. Enthralled like of many of his peers by medieval ideas this is clearly shown in a unique wooden zodiac settle designed for his own use in 1869 and then painted and stencilled with symbols and figures by Henry Stacy Marks and Frederick Weekes. It rested until his death and long after at his own home, Tower House in Kensington, eventually passing into the ownership of the poet laureate John Betjeman who gave it to his friend the novelist Evelyn Waugh. This remarkable piece with so many fascinating associations is priced at £800,000 and barred from export until 20 August 2010 with a possible extension until 20 December 2010.

And finally, a bronze relief by a relatively little-known Renaissance sculptor, Pierino da Vinci. He was the nephew of Leonardo da Vinci and in the course of his short life – only from 1529 – 1553, exhibited rare talent leaving only few known works. For nearly three centuries this relief has been held in English collections, those of the Earl of Burlington and then by inheritance of the Dukes of Devonshire. Long attributed to Michelangelo, the relief is now known to be by Pierino who made it circa 1549 for Luca Martini dell'Ala – whose arms are cast on the back of the bronze. Undoubtedly a national treasure, this sculpture is priced at £10 million and barred from export until 13 September 2010 with a possible and unusually long extension until 13 June 2011.

Please check opening times and days before travelling any distance.