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Smuggling the Renaissance
The Illicit Export of Artworks Out of Italy, 1861-1909
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Smuggling the Renaissance: The Illicit Export of Artworks Out of Italy, 1861-1909 explores the phenomenon of art spoliation in Italy following Unification (1861), when the international demand for Italian Renaissance artworks was at an all-time high but effective art protection legislation had not yet been passed.
Making use of rich archival material Joanna Smalcerz narrates the complex and often dramatic struggle between the lawmakers of the new Italian State, and international curators (e.g., Wilhelm Bode), collectors (e.g., Isabella Stewart Gardner) and dealers (e.g., Stefano Bardini) who continuously orchestrated illicit schemes to export abroad Italian masterpieces. At the heart of the intertwinement of the art trade, art scholarship and art protection policies the author exposes the socio-psychological dynamics of unlawful collecting.
Making use of rich archival material Joanna Smalcerz narrates the complex and often dramatic struggle between the lawmakers of the new Italian State, and international curators (e.g., Wilhelm Bode), collectors (e.g., Isabella Stewart Gardner) and dealers (e.g., Stefano Bardini) who continuously orchestrated illicit schemes to export abroad Italian masterpieces. At the heart of the intertwinement of the art trade, art scholarship and art protection policies the author exposes the socio-psychological dynamics of unlawful collecting.
Joanna Smalcerz, Ph.D. (2017), University of Bern, is an Associated Researcher at that university. Her research and publications focus on the nineteenth-century art market and collecting, as well as on the relations between societies and their cultural heritage.
'(...) il volume di Joanna Smalcerz può essere considerato senzâaltro unâopera di riferimento, specie per quanto attiene allo studio di quel segmento elitario del mercato del collezionismo dâarte fra le due sponde dellâAtlantico, a cavallo tra Otto e Novecento, che costituisce, in una prospettiva multidimensionale, il focus dellâanalisi della studiosa polacca.'
Translation: '(...) Joanna Smalcerz's volume can certainly be considered a reference work, especially with regard to the study of the elite segment of the art market and collecting on both sides of the Atlantic at the turn of the twentieth century, which constitutes - in a multidimensional perspective - the focus of the Polish scholar's analysis.'
Marcello Moscone in Bollettino d'Arte
Translation: '(...) Joanna Smalcerz's volume can certainly be considered a reference work, especially with regard to the study of the elite segment of the art market and collecting on both sides of the Atlantic at the turn of the twentieth century, which constitutes - in a multidimensional perspective - the focus of the Polish scholar's analysis.'
Marcello Moscone in Bollettino d'Arte
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Prologue: A Dealerâs Problem with the Government
Introduction
1 From Rome to Berlin: The Illicit Export of the Bust of the Princess of Urbino
â1.1âThe Bust of the Princess of Urbino
â1.2âAcquisition
â1.3âIllicit Exportation
â1.4âInvestigation and Trial
2 The Buying Collector: Wilhelm Bode and the Demand for Italian Renaissance Art
â2.1âWhy the Art of the Italian Renaissance?
â2.2âA Renaissance Beauty at All Costs
â2.3âThe Big Players
â2.4âMeraviglie
3 The Enquiring Inspector: Giuseppe Fiorelli and the Lacuna in Italian Art Export Law
â3.1âUnenviable Status Quo
â3.2âWhat Happens When a Raphael Is Taken Away?
â3.3âBereft and Grieving
â3.4âDifficult Pathway to Success
4 The Smuggling Dealer: Stefano Bardini and the Illicit Export of Artworks Out of Italy
â4.1âLegal Matters
â4.2âThe Business of Exporting Art
â4.3âThere Is Always a Way
â4.4âItalian Combat
5 The Foreign Strawman: Albert Figdor and the Role of Social Networks in Art Smuggling
â5.1âHow Does a Social Network in Collecting Work?
â5.2âWith a Little Help from My Friends
â5.3âLooking for a Loophole Together
â5.4âEverybody Does It
Conclusion
Epilogue: A Government's Problem with Dealers
Appendix
Bibliography
Index
List of Figures
Prologue: A Dealerâs Problem with the Government
Introduction
1 From Rome to Berlin: The Illicit Export of the Bust of the Princess of Urbino
â1.1âThe Bust of the Princess of Urbino
â1.2âAcquisition
â1.3âIllicit Exportation
â1.4âInvestigation and Trial
2 The Buying Collector: Wilhelm Bode and the Demand for Italian Renaissance Art
â2.1âWhy the Art of the Italian Renaissance?
â2.2âA Renaissance Beauty at All Costs
â2.3âThe Big Players
â2.4âMeraviglie
3 The Enquiring Inspector: Giuseppe Fiorelli and the Lacuna in Italian Art Export Law
â3.1âUnenviable Status Quo
â3.2âWhat Happens When a Raphael Is Taken Away?
â3.3âBereft and Grieving
â3.4âDifficult Pathway to Success
4 The Smuggling Dealer: Stefano Bardini and the Illicit Export of Artworks Out of Italy
â4.1âLegal Matters
â4.2âThe Business of Exporting Art
â4.3âThere Is Always a Way
â4.4âItalian Combat
5 The Foreign Strawman: Albert Figdor and the Role of Social Networks in Art Smuggling
â5.1âHow Does a Social Network in Collecting Work?
â5.2âWith a Little Help from My Friends
â5.3âLooking for a Loophole Together
â5.4âEverybody Does It
Conclusion
Epilogue: A Government's Problem with Dealers
Appendix
Bibliography
Index
All interested in the late nineteenth-century history of the art market and collecting, Italian cultural heritage protection policies and the international reception of Italian Renaissance art.