Conservation Archives - Jordi de Nadal

Seven for seven: From Sitges to the Professor Castiñeiras.

Posted on 21 September, 201721 September, 2017

1. Sitges as usual.

The day of conferences (October 20^th) hosted by the Museums of Sitges, near Barcelona, and devoted to collectionism, museums and the art market, will as usual mark the rentrée in this corner of the Mediterranean. In a fitting coincidence, one of the speakers, Glòria Domènech, will elaborate on the late Antoni Tàpies as collector, just two weeks after some of the works he treasured will have gone to auction at Christie’s – at the Post-War and Contemporary Art Evening Auction (6 October, London) and the Up Close Sale, (3 October, London), with further works at the Impressionist and Modern sales in February 2018.

2. An Austrian abroad: Max Hollein.

*Photo: Fine Arts Museums San Francisco*

The FAZ has the ability of making good interviews to German-speaking directors abroad. Max Hollein, the former star of the European museum sector as director of the Frankfurt’s museums, and since last year, director of the Legion of Honor and the M.H.de Young Museum in San Francisco, says:

“European museums are heavily influenced by public cultural policies. There is not state-lead cultural policy in America. The museums are far more influenced by what the Board of Trustees says, not only from the economic point of view”.

3. A German abroad: Eike Schmidt.

All the same for Eike Schmidt, the current director of the Ufizzi: “The Italian bureaucracy is a giant hurdle. I have overcome it successfully many times”, states he in this interview for the FAZ. As it is known, he will leave the Florentine museum for the KHM Vienna in the second half of 2019.

4. Our common friend Leviathan.

The poor owner of Pleurant n. 17 from the tomb of Philippe the Bold (which has been reconstructed in the Musée de Beaux Arts de Dijon), can trace his ownership back to 1813, and has lent the piece to all the relevant exhibitions. Moreover, when he decided to sell it, he approached the tax authorities for a in lieu scheme, and also the museum of Dijon for a fundraising campaign, unsuccessfully. But when he eventually put it to auction, the heroes of Leviathan finally awoke, and he now risks expropriation by the French state on the grounds of a rule of 1804 (the tomb was however dismantled in 1793, articles at La Connaissance des Arts and Bilan).

5. A family matter.

ARCA’s blog explains us the family connections behind the robbery of a Big Leaf in the Bode Museum, Berlin. Otherwise, you can find in Die Zeit a video showing three of the detainees, in their way home after the job, taking a walk together into an empty, CCTV surveilled S-Bahn.

6. Böhler? Ask the ZI.

The ZI in Munich has secured funds for research on the Julius Böhler archives (1903-1949), which they acquired in 2015. They are however looking for more suport for the digitization of all the material. Böhler was one of the most important German Old Masters dealers of the first half of the 20th century, closely related with the Royal museus an collections in Berlin and Munich. He was also active with American Museums – the MFA Boston bought him this fine Saint Francis by Francisco de Zurbarán.

7. A man with a mission.

Professor Manuel A. Castiñeiras carries on in his effort to put the Hispanic Romanesque art in its right international context. In his new book you will find articles by the many specialists form home and abroad attracted by him in his seminars and courses, at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and elsewhere (Manuel A. Castiñeiras, ed.: Entre la letra y el pincel: El artista medieval. Leyenda, identidad y estatus, Círculo Rojo, 2017, 420 p.; ISBN: 978-8491603368).

Seven for seven: From Valldoreix to your clients.

Posted on 7 September, 201714 September, 2017

1. In good hands.

The last issue of RESCAT the biannual bulletin of the CRMB, Catalonia’s Institute for Restauration in Valldoreix (Barcelona), includes many examples of the good work the institute is doing with important works of art owned by the Church – among them 31 pieces of jewellery currently in the Museu Diocesà de la Seu d’Urgell or the Mare de Déu del Patrocini in Cardona (photo). You will find also find an interview with Father Jesús Tarragona Bay, a key figure in heritage protection in Lleida.

2. Grandeur.

If you are a Biennale-goer (September 11-17), most probably you are also a Kugel-goer, and next week you will be enjoying their Classical sculptures and Old Masters paintings exhibition, in the new six rooms extension of their grandiose gallery in the Hôtel Collot, at Quai Anatole (article at the Antiques Trade Gazzette, paying).

3. Tefaf NY Fall.

The American leg of TEFAF has posted its list of exhibitors, and photos of some of the works on offer – like this recently attributed Madonna and Child by Musical Angels by the Maestro of Belmonte (146 x 121 cm), at Jaime Eguiguren’s. The doors of the Park Avenue Armory, New York, will open on October 27^th, for just 6 days.

4. The rise of the online catalogue raisonée.

The Wildenstein Platter Institute is following the trend and has plans to put online not only the vast Wildenstein archive, but also the catalogues raisonées of Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, and Claude Monet. The WPI is a partnership between the Wildenstein Institute and Hasso Platter, the co- founder of the tech giant SAP SE and the man behind, among other things, the successful Museum Barberini in Postdam. Now the obvious advantages of the online catalogue are more and more clear, is good to remember the pioneers, like the Fundació Dalí in Figueres, breaking ground since 2004.

5. Miró introduces Dalí to Breton.

The City Council of Girona has put online the archives of the fabled Galeries Dalmau in Barcelona, given by the heirs of art critic Rafael Santos Torroella following Girona’s purchase of his art collection. You will find there this letter of introduction for Salvador Dalí, written by Joan Miró to André Breton in March 20th, 1920, and also the catalogue with prices of Miró’s first solo exhibition, of just two years before.

6. “Museums are still about their collections, and about striving for a higher experience”

Artnet offered a two-installments interview (here and here) with Philippe de Montebello, on the place of museums in our societies, and his plans to revive the Hispanic Society in New York.

7. Sure you know all that.

In this article in Artnet you will find some basic advice you can always give to someone new to the Old Masters field. I will only add the great joy of discovering, buying and researching a good piece.

Seven for seven: From Los Angeles to Vic

Posted on 17 August, 201714 September, 2017

1. Getty’s grand catch.

The Getty has announced its biggest acquistion of drawings ever, a group of 16 works by Michelangelo, Andrea del Sarto, Parmigianino, Beccafumi, Rubens, Barocci, G. D. Tiepolo, Degas and others. They include Goya’s The Eagle Hunter, sold at Sotheby’s in 2010 for GBP 881,250. All of them come from the same Britisch colletion, from which the Getty can still make further pruchases. Articles in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times; a press release with the complete list of the works at Getty’s website; and images and name-gessing in The Art Newspaper.

2. The Delgado Collection.

Las Provincias first and Ars Magazine after, report on the 5 years loan of 32 works from the Delgado Collection to the Museu de Belles Arts, Valencia. The artists represetned include Velázquez, Cajés, Meléndez, Murillo, but also Ramsay. They are showing them until October 29th, with a catalogue by the art historian José Gómez Frechina, who was key in managing the loan, and David Gimillo Sanz, a curator in the museum.

3. Restoring the Valencian Van Dyck.

At the web of the same Museu de Belles Arts de València you will find the videos documenting, step by step, the ongoing restoration of their Van Dyck’s Portrait of Francesc de Montcada.

4. Face to face at the National Portrait Gallery.

The NPG London ins hosting an attractive exhibition of Renaissance and Baroque portrait drawings from British collections, with fine sheets by Holbein, Rembrandt, Leonardo, and others. Reviews are enthusiastic, like this one by Alastair Sooke in The Telegraph. The Encounter, NPG London, until October 22nd.

5. And in 2020, Morosov.

If, despite some faults in its installation, you enjoyed the grand exhibition of the Collection Schukin in the Fondation Louis Vuitton, here is your next appointment. They announced that in autumn 2020 they will show the Collection Morosov, two brothers from his same circle. This entertaining biography of Shukin gives some insights on their social and professional relationships: Natalia Semenova and André Delocque: Chtchoukine. Le patron de l’art modern, ed. La Collection Chtchoukine, Paris, 2016; 400 p. The Art Newspaper remembers us of Pierre Konowaloff, an active descendant of the Morosovs.

6. Béton box.

This is how the entry to the Musée de Cluny, Paris, will look like, once the building work is finished – by the end of this year, if it goes as planned. For the full renovation project, named Cluny 4, see the feature at museum’s website.

7. See you in 125 years from now?

The blog Mev125 (in Catalan) is closing. It has been open for a year at the excellent website of the Museu Episcopal de Vic, to celebrate its 125th anniversary. Its 40 posts have set an example on how to give relevant information in a clear, reliable, enjoyable way. We have learnt about the museum’s history, the works it houses, and the people behind it – among them, Dr. Eudald Junyent (1901-1978), who gave up a promising career in Rome for it. They will keep all the content uploaded.

Seven for seven: From Paris to Petrella Tifernina.

Posted on 10 August, 201714 September, 2017

1. Beyond one’s own walls.

The July newsletter from the Musee Picasso, Paris, shows the first fruits of the Picasso-Mediterranée project (programme here) and makes the unusual move to inform not only about the activities of the Musee, but also of the many others museums in France and Spain related with involved in the project. The grand project, led by the Parisian museum, will run from now until December 2019 and will include some 45 exhibtiions – at the three Picasso museums in Paris, Barcelona and Malaga, the Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Scuderia in Rome, Capodimonte in Naples, Musée Rigaud in Perpignan (already showing Picasso Perpignan. Le cercle de l’ntime 1953-1955, until November 5th), Musée Fabre in Montpellier and many others.

2. Michel Hilaire.

At La Tribune de l’Art you will find an interview with Michel Hilaire, director of the Musée Fabre of Montpellier. He explains how he turned it in to one of the most interesting and active in France.

3. A couple of centuries old, and fit.

The celebration’s programme for Museo del Prado 200th anniversary, planned for 2019, adds some specific proposals (like two exhibitions on the museum’s history) to an already ambitious Masterplan for 2017-2020. This includes three new catalogues on the museum’s holdings of Velázquez, Giordano and Teniers; exhibitions of star artists (Velázquez again, plus Rembrandt, Goya, Fra Angelico, Brueghel); among many other activities.

4. Hear the lawyer.

Lawyer Leila Amineddoleh explains in artnet news why the US government was right in pursuing the Hooby Lobby’s looted art case not as a criminal one, but as a civil one. Anyway, we learn from npr that there has been arrests in the Isarel’s side of the story .

5. Too cheap?

In this note by Reuters and this one by Art Law and More, I finally found the raisoning behind which an appeal judge, in California, agreed to reopen a case that seemed closed for good. The fact that Baron Thyseen first and the Spanish State from him, bought the Pissarro (Rue Saint-Honoré, Après-midi, Effet de Pluie, 1897) at a price below the market price, undermines now his good faith. But perhaps we should treat differently the first purchase, of a single painting, from the second, of an entire collection for a wholesale price? Will see.

6. Autumn’s reading.

Harvey Miller is about to publish Cut in Alabaster: a Material of Sculpture (320 ps, €125), in which Kim Woods discusses, among other European examples, the Doncel of Sigüenza (above) and some Iberian retables.

7. Not always an Ecce Homo.

Foto: AnsaThis year’s summer popular restauration story differs greatly from 2012 Ecce Homo of Borgia’s disaster. The Giornale dell’Arte reports about the nice restauration, paid by the inhabitants of the small Italian village of Petrella Tifernina (Campobasso, Molise), of their local Christ: what looked as a popular pastiche was in fact hiding a fine 15th-16th century wooden figure. More information at ANSA.

Seven for seven: From Torroella to the Courtauld Institute

Posted on 20 July, 201714 September, 2017

1. After beach time.

The Fundació Mascort in Torroella de Montgrí (in North Catalonia, close to the coast) is showing the Selected Pieces of its founder’s collection, until October 15th. They are displaying them as they were the normal furnishings of their lovely house, the Casa Galibern, and the effect is refreshing. You will find, among other interesting items, a splendid cross from 15th century Barcelona, attributed to Pere Barnès. For good ice cream, try the local Gelats Angelo (at Bohème or El Cruixent shops).

2. A Catalan in Texas.

Appollo Magazine informs us the Meadows Museum bought this panel with Saints Benedict and Onophrius attributed to Pere Vall. Dated c. 1410, it is only the third work before 1450 in the collection. The happy seller was Sam Fogg.

3. Now it is public.

José Ángel Montañes reviews in El País the Generalitat of Catalonia’s 2016 acquisitions list (“Más patrimonio para todos”, May 1st, 2017). It includes this Saint James Apostle by Ramon Solà II, a painter from Girona. It was found by yours truly, and it will join the Museu d’Art de Girona’s fine Medieval collection.

4. Great job in a great work.

Bartolomé Bermejo’s masterpiece The Pietat Desplà looks spectacular after its restoration (paid by Fundació Banc Sabadell). It has now returned to the small museum in the Barcelona’s Cathedral cloister. Otherwise, between in October 2018 and February 2019 the Prado in Madrid will host a comprehensive retrospective of Bermejo’s works, curated by Joan Molina from the Universitat de Girona.

5. They found gold.

The Centre de Restauració de Béns Mobles de la Generalitat has published this tape of its excellent cleaning of the Romanesque Portal in Santa Maria of Ripoll – in collaboration with Arcovaleno. Perhaps you can spot a golden beard. Here you can download an executive summary (in Catalan). In Arcovaleno’s website there is some extra material.

6. Leonardo shines again.

After a year of research and discussion, followed by five and a half years of actual cleaning and restauration work, Leonardo’s Adoration of the Magi is hanging again in the Uffizi (“Firenze, l’Adorazione dei Magi restaurata debutta ai Uffizzi”, La Reppublica, 27.03.2017). Specialist Frank Zöllner hails it as a brilliant answer to the restorer’s permanent dilemma: to erase or not to erase the work’s physical past. (“Ist Mückenschiss keine wahrhafte Geschichtsspur?”, F.A.Z., 26.04.2017).

7. Medieval ivories, now less rare.

When looking for 14th and 15th century ivory caskets, I came across the impressive Gothic Ivories Project mantained by the Courtauld Institute, which includes the medieval ivory collections of more han 400 than institutions and archives, for a total of over 5100 objects.

20.06.2015. From Barcelona to Basel

Posted on 21 June, 2015

1. The road to heaven.

This Spanish School – Circle of José de Ribera rocketed from an estimate of €4,000 to a hammer price of €350,000. It might be by the master himself, although I won’t rule out the name of Juan Do (Saint Jerome, oil on canvas, 135 x 102 cm, La Suite Subastas, Barcelona June 18^th, 2015, lot 32).

2. The naturalized Pietà.

What came to auction in Germany as the work of an Italinienischer Meister, turned out to be a fine panel by the Spanish Maestro de la Piedad, who was working around 1400 in the Toledo area under a strong Neapolitan or Southern Italian influence. It now belongs to a private collector.

3. A journey with Mr Wiseman.

Wiseman’s extraordinary National Gallery is a filmed play that opens with a rather topical argument about museums and its public (which Director Neil McGregor wins over, thanks to the old lawyer’s trick of asking the other part to produce the actual proof of her quite foggy claim), and takes you all the way up to two professional dances performing before Titian’s Diana and Acteon and its sequel Death of Acteon, as a way to celebrate its reunion. From talking about art to just contemplating it, as Richard Brody puts in The New Yorker, Wiseman’s way is a fascinating journey.

4. The Greek route.

While the magnificient Defining Beauty in the British Museum shows the multiple ways the Greeks explored the human figure; the tiny, carefully selected Maillol and Greece in the Museu Marés, Barcelona, explains which lessons took and retook the creator of the Mediterranée (1905) from the kouros and other archaic examples, during his trip in mainland Greece between April and May 1908. Curator Alex Susanna claims this was a key moment for modern sculpture, since Maillol’s quiet, self-contained forms opened the door to cold, modern, abstract works.

5.And then, Picasso.

No survey would be complete without the Master, so MOMA’s Picasso Sculpture (opening on September, 14th) comes particularly at hand for exploring further the birth of contemporary sculpture. According to David Ebony in Art in America, it will include the 1909 Head of Fernande – and perhaps the 1912 Cardboard Guitar?

6. A word from the lawyer.

Rebecca Foden, the lawyer from Boodle Hatfield LLP that represented Mr Thwaytes in his lost case against Sotheby’s, gives here some valuable pieces of advice about consigning works to auction.

7. The return of the prodigal son.

The most commented piece news from the ground floor of this year’s Art Basel was the return of Helly Nahmad with a spectacular stand (see reports at Artnet and Artnews). But it was not all about big works by big names. I was attracted by the reunion of these little Miró: no less than three, all of the same year (1944), all from the same series. I didn’t dare ask their price.