Pay 350,000 euros the painting of an author whose works are worth an average of 100,000. It is the bad “deal” that the Royal Museums of Turin made last September 2022 with the advice of the Scientific and Technical Committee, according to Undersecretary of State for Culture Vittorio Sgarbi Ministry of Culture. This is the acquisition of the canvas that reassembles the figurative structure of the painting La Musica by Antiveduto Gramatica. “Behind the current administration, unbeknownst to the Minister and the Secretary of State informed by the Turin press, the Royal Museums of Turin, a body that apparently considers itself independent of the Ministry of Culture, presented the modest acquisition, albeit described as exceptional of a concert a due figure of Antiveduto Gramatica», explains Sgarbi, «acquired by the Ministry of Culture, Directorate General of Museums, in September 2022, before the current government took office, with the favorable opinion of the Scientific-Technical Committee». The Secretary of State continues: «The triumphalism of those responsible for the Royal Museums of Turin for having dubiously reassembled two fragments of an allegory of music recorded in Cardinal del Monte’s collection in Rome. At a price of 350,000 euros, which in any case cannot exceed 100,000 euros».
«A modest fragment passed for a masterpiece»
Sgarbi defines the purchase by the Royal Museums as “a modest fragment” which the work is said to have bought from an English antiquary Derek Johns, “after it was exhibited at Tefaf in Maastricht in the “Carretto & Occhionegro Gallery” with a request for 1 million euros, which dropped to 350,000 euros”. The art critic has no doubts: “As it is a fragment, although linked to a work existing in the Royal Museums of Turin, the fair market value of an Italian painting said to be from the Torlonia collection and of indefinite duration.” is exported, by all accounts, must not be exceeded 100 thousand euros: see the triumphant David with the head of Goliath, intact, released by Sotheby’s on July 4, 2019 and sold at 89,000 euros; or Maria Magdalena and the two angels sold by Hampel on December 3rd, 2020 a 49,700 thousand euros». The list goes on: «The Sibilla Tiburtina, published by Pandolfini in October 2022, has been sold 12 thousand euros; the Salome, which was released by Sotheby’s on December 8, 2016 a 70,458 euros». Given what has been explained, Sgarbi says he understands the legitimacy of a price “outside the Italian market” by the Scientific-Technical Committee, bought in “the most expensive market in the world”, after years of humiliation “by Italian antique dealers with Ties and notifications about paintings “not for sale, of much greater interest”.
For example, the critic refers to the “remarkable painting by Peter Paulini notified in Turin» to the antiquarian bookshop Voena. «How can the acquisition of the fragment from Antiveduto Gramatica, arbitrarily defined as a ‘masterpiece’?” he concludes. The announcement by the Royal Museums of Turin of the launch of the Concerto with Two Figures by Gramatica (1569-1626) in their collection came a few hours ago, with the explanation of how the canvas next to the theorbo player is recomposed figurative structure of the painting. From February 28 to March 5, 2023, the two works, brought together after four centuries, can be seen on the first floor of the Galleria Sabauda, in one of the rooms dedicated to the Masters of Caravagge and recently rearranged.
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