"A Great Moral Lesson": The Restitution of Italy's Stolen Art Treasures
Guest Lectures
•
55m
with Susan Jaques
Throughout his military campaigns, Napoleon Bonaparte systematically plundered art, with a preference for Italian paintings and antiquities. After Napoleon’s defeat, the Duke of Wellington vowed to teach the French “a great moral lesson” by spearheading the restitution of stolen art at the Louvre. Pope Pius VII, back in Rome after house arrest in France, dispatched sculptor Antonio Canova to Paris to negotiate the return of Italy’s cultural patrimony. For months, Canova went head-to-head with the Louvre’s wily director, Dominique Vivant Denon. “A Great Moral Lesson”: the Restitution of Italy’s Stolen Art Treasures” will highlight the battle that took place in Paris and the incredibly high stakes -- from the ancient bronze horses of St. Mark’s and “Venus de' Medici" to Raphael’s “Transfiguration” and Caravaggio’s “Deposition.” In the end, only about half of Italy's looted art was returned. Masterpieces that remain in France to this day include Titian’s “The Crowning with Thorns,” Veronese’s “Wedding at Cana” and Perugino’s “Marriage of the Virgin.”
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