More on that strange French restitution case
November 9 2011
More details have emerged about the French government's curious attempt to seize a painting by Nicolas Tournier it says was stolen almost two hundred years ago. The picture, above, was being offered by the London-based dealer, Mark Weiss, to the Musee des Augustines, in Toulouse, where it had hung until it vanished in 1818. But when the museum contacted the French culture ministry to raise funds for the work, a sharp witted official appears to have decided that instead of buying the picture, it would be far cheaper to simply seize it.
The picture had surfaced at a Sotheby's auction in Italy, as by a 'follower of Caravaggio', and sold for EUR 59,500. Mr Weiss has told The Independent that he had been asking considerably more for it:
Earlier this year, the Weiss gallery offered the Tournier for sale for €675,000. "That would have been a fair price to a private buyer," Mr Weiss said yesterday. "But we were ready to sell it to the Toulouse museum for less than that."
Normally we picture-hunters love to find a piece of museum provenance. But in this case it seems to have caused all manner of problems. Is it a case of the sleeper bites back?
