The Getty Museum purchased a sculpture by Bernini for $ 33 million
the Getty Museum has acquired from art dealer from Slovakia marble "Bust of Pope Paul V" by Italian sculptor Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini. A private deal was concluded under the mediation of the auction house Sotheby's, and the sum of the transaction amounted to an impressive $ 33 million. This is one of the highest prices ever paid for a sculpture. When compared with sculptures of Champions auction, a marble bust by Bernini will be roughly in the same price category with three-dimensional works Henri Matisse, Constantin Brancusi and Henry Mura@ In the history of existence of this marble bust by Bernini has many white spots. Sculptural portrait of Pope Paul V was commissioned Bernini his nephew cardinal Scipione Borghese. However, his descendants somehow forgot that this is the work of Bernini, and in 1893 sold it at auction no one Venetian art collector as a work of the Italian sculptor Alessandro Algardi. In 1916, the work was again attributed to Bernini, and in 1917 was again resold. But in whose collection marble sculpture was next hundred years, including during the two world wars, is unknown. The work was familiar to the public only by a bronze copy of Sebastiano Sebastiani about the same time as the original. Now this bronze copy is in the collection of the State Museum of arts in Copenhagen@ as for the original marble of Bernini, he emerged from obscurity only in 2013 in Bratislava, Slovakia. Descendants of Slovak artist Ernest Smetana (Ernest Zmeták) put the bust of Pope Paul V on auction with an estimate of 47 thousand euros, but due to the dubious provenance of the sculpture was not sold. As admitted by the Director of the Vienna Museum "Collection of Lichtenstein", he offered this bust, but he "politely declined" for the same reason. In September 2014, the work was again put up for auction and was bought by the aforementioned Slovak art dealer for 24 thousand euros. As you can see, this risky move was justified Seba@ Bust of Pope Paul V was carved from a single piece of marble in 1621, when Bernini was only 23 years old. The work occupies an important place in the creative biography of the great Italian masters. Early work of Bernini particularly valuable because it is created, usually without the help of assistants. It is assumed that this was the first image of Pope Paul V. Sources: artnet.com, artnet.com, artinvestment.ru
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