Zanchi Collection, 1985, Renaissance, Baroque, Bodart, art fraud?

Description: The Zanchi Collection, by Didier Bodart, De Luca Editore, Rome Italy, 1985. Thick, heavy quarto, 566 pages, gray cloth covers, dust jacket, profusely illustrated in color and b&w. Contents: Introduction; acknowledgements; color plates; Flemish and Dutch Schools’ French School; Italian Schools; British School; German School; Spanish School; Swiss School; Other Schools; Bibliography; index of Names and Works. From introduction by Jean Zanchi: “…Even though as a young man I was attracted to art…I never thought that one day I would be the owner of an important art collection. Then, at the beginning of the Fifties, an unsolvent debtor gave me about eighty paintings and sculptures in payment of his debts. Thus, I had involuntarily become an art collector and was at the beginning of an adventure which has now lasted more than thirty years. … I began to study the lives and works of artists, undertook research and visited museums, and I have continued in this way for over thirty years,…The eighty works of art of thirty years ago have become more than 1,500…The volume of this activity meant that expert collaboration was necessary. So, in 1969, I trusted Didier Bodart, in Rome, with the task of drawing up the inventory and the catalogue of my collection. No less than 15 years of meticulous work, research and study have been necessary for Professor Bodart to complete this task. The present catalogue is the fruit of his efforts.” Zanchi, heir to a Swiss-Italian wine magnate, included in this collection works by Michelangelo, Carravagio, Cozzarelli, Rubens, Turner and Van Dyck. The Zanchi Collection includes works belonging to the Italian Renaissance and Baroque, as well as other works of Flemish and Dutch painting of the 17th century, enlarged and enriched by the inclusion of great masters of the Spanish Baroque and of English Romanticism.   During a traveling exhibition of the collection in Spain (for which this book is presumably the catalog), the authenticity of many of the works was questioned and later dates in the exhibition cancelled. This was in part because the collection itself was so little-known and because catalog of these works spanning several artistic periods was created and vouched for by a single person – Bodart, a professor of art history at the Catholic University of Louvain and creator of the cabinet of prints and drawings for the Vatican, and a specialist on 17th century Flemish painting. Furthermore, museum officials and art historians questioned why the collection was not heavily guarded on tour. This issue is seemingly not resolved. Condition: Good+/Very Good--. Interior clean, binding tight. Two inch crack in front hinge, Corners and spine ends mildly bumped, covers and dust jacket mildly rubbed. Some raggedness to corners of dust jacket, and slight curling to edges.

Price: 300 USD

Location: New York, New York

End Time: 2024-05-02T00:00:01.000Z

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