Italy’s new nationalist government is unhappy over the previous regime’s deal to lend paintings by Leonardo da Vinci to France in return for France lending Italy works by Raphael.
The works were to be part of next year’s massive Louvre exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of the death of the Italian genius, who spent his last years working in France. Junior Culture Minister Lucia Bergonzoni told the newspaper Corriere della Sera that the deal was ‘unbelievable.’ She went on to say “Leonardo is Italian, he only died in France.”
The deal calls for all the Leonardos owned by the Italian state to be lent. The following year, when Rome’s Scurderi del Quirinale Museum hosts a 500th anniversary exhibit of works by Raphael, France’s pictures would be sent. But Bergonzoni isn’t impressed. “Most of Raphael’s works are already in Italy.”
Photo: Tourists at the Louvre, with Leonardo’s Mona Lisa
