AFA 18th Anniversary

Sometimes, permanent collections are impermanent. In 2017 the Boston Public Library was required to return to the Italian government two fifteenth-century illustrated religious manuscripts stolen from its owners in Sicily. The Metropolitan Museum of Art also returned to the Italian government a 2,300-year-old Greco-Roman vase looted from a tomb in Italy in the 1970s. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston reached an out-of-court settlement with the estate of Emma Budge, allowing the institution to keep seven pieces of eighteenth-century German porcelain sold under Nazi duress in Berlin in 1937. And then, some acquisitions make worldwide headlines for other reasons, such as when the United Arab Emirates (identified as the purchaser after much speculation) acquired Salvator Mundi , attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, for $450 million. The painting will be on view at the Louvre Abu Dhabi.  Daniel Grant is a freelance writer specializing in the arts industry. Fig. 15: Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917) After the Bath , ca. 1886. Pastel on paper, laid down on board, 72 x 58 cm. Courtesy, The J. Paul Getty Trust. Fig. 13: Camille Pissarro (French, 1830–1903), Landscape at Les Pâtis, Pontoise, 1868. Oil on canvas, 31⅞ x 39⅜ inches. Courtesy, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Gift (Partial and Promised) of Mr. and Mrs. David Rockefeller, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art. Fig. 14: Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606–1669), Portrait of Aeltje Uylenburgh , 1632. Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection. Courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 2018 Antiques & Fine Art 105