"Saved for Italy", news portals in the Belpaese rejoice: A painting by the Italian baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi, which may have been executed illegally, was discovered by Carabinieri from Bari in Vienna, seized and brought back to Italy.

Without Italian access, the depiction of “Roman Caritas”, estimated to be worth around two million euros, might have gone under the hammer at the Austrian auction house Dorotheum, or it might have ended up in new hands as part of a private sale.

Ursula Scheer

Editor in the Feuilleton.

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The oil painting was probably created in 1643/44 on behalf of Count Giangirolamo Acquaviva d'Aragona.

It tells the story of a legend spread by Valerius Maximus, according to which a grown woman breastfeeds one of her starving parents in prison to save them from starvation.

This example of charity became a popular subject in the Baroque era.

Apulian heritage

Until a few years ago, the painting attributed to Gentileschi was said to have been owned by the Baresian family, first at Conversano Castle and then at Marchione Castle.

The current owners of the work, Michele Forte and Domenico Iannuzziello, are accused of fraud and illegal export of a cultural object.

Forte and Iannuzziello are said to have initially received an export license from the Genoa Ministry of Culture, but they concealed the attribution of the work to Artemisia Gentileschi and gave a much lower estimated value than the actual one.

The permit has been revoked, so the export is classified as illegal.

The fact that the work of art was seized is thanks to a European agreement to "freeze" illegally exported capital, which has now been transferred to a work of art.

The public prosecutor's office in Bari, the Carabinieri "Comando tutela patrimonio culturale" attached to the Ministry of Culture, the Office for Archeology and Fine Arts of the Apulian capital, the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation and the Italian Embassy in Austria worked together on the preventive seizure.

Not without pathos, prosecutor Roberto Rossi comments, quoting anti-mafia fighter Peppino Impastato: “To educate in beauty means to educate in legality.

Our history, our past, is what makes us free people."

The Dorotheum in Vienna states in an official statement: "The painting in question was legally exported from Italy in 2019 with an export license from the Italian Monuments Office as 'attributed to Artemisia Gentileschi and/or Onofrio Palumbo, formerly attributed to Massimo Stanzione' by the painting's owners.

This export license was subsequently revoked in 2020.

Since then, the owners who inherited the picture have been in an open legal dispute with the export authorities about the annulment of this export notice from Italy.

The painting has not been offered at auction or under a private treaty.”