According to the trustees, Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza decided to sell the painting "Gateway" by John Constable, the last 13 years, exhibited in the museum of her late husband, just for the money

John Constable
Gateway.
1824 Oil on canvas. 142,2 x 120,7
Christie's. 3.07.2012
Estimate: £ 20-25 million
Source: telegraph.co.uk

Tonight at auction in London, Christie's« Old Master and British paintings, "with an estimate of 20-25 million pounds will be invited to one of the greatest works of John Constable - painting" The Gateway ». This is the only work of Constable of the level in private hands, all the rest of the series of landscapes of the river Stour for a long time in museums. "Gateway" put up for auction Baroness Carmen - the fifth wife of the late Baron Heinrich von Thyssen-Bornemisza, who founded the museum in its own name in Madrid.

Spanish beauty Carmen (nee Chervera) once she persuaded her husband, a German Heinrich, open the museum for its rich collection of art is in Spain. And in 1993, with the assistance of Baroness Spanish state was able to buy for a nominal fee most of the congregation, and make the museum public. But part of the collection (about 250 pieces) were in private possession of Baron and Baroness, and after the death of Baron in 2002, they moved to Carmen. This group works and the canvas is "Gateway" by John Constable, husband and wife bought in 1990 and passed 13 years ago in a rent-free to the museum.

Logically, accustomed to see the picture in the museum trustees reacted negatively to the idea to sell the Baroness 'gateway' to the auction. One member of the Board of Trustees - Sir Norman Rosenthal (Norman Rosenthal) - to protest, even went out of his composition, explaining his decision that the Baroness has demonstrated lack of understanding of the history of art and true artistic value of the paintings in a museum context.

Baroness Carmen itself, which contains four villas in Spain and 80 staff, argued for sale pictures of Constable lack of liquidity of the collection. She said that, like all Spaniards, is suffering from the crisis and that she did not have enough money for the maintenance of costly assembly.

However, the stepdaughter of Carmen - the only daughter of Baron von Habsburg Francesca (Francesca Von Habsburg ) - says that her stepmother, exposing the painting up for auction, just indulge his whims. "The Baroness shows absolute contempt for my father, it simply puts their financial needs above all else ... She likes to be submitted hateful typical Spaniard, who suffered, like all the others, but this is far from the truth," - said Francesca von Habsburg in an interview with The Mail .

Prepared by Mary Onuchina, AI

Source: artinvestment.ru