Thursday 31 May 2012

Medici Dossier and Christie's

Italian journalist Fabio Isman has written in today's edition of Il Messaggero (May 31, 2011) about a new sighting from the Medici Dossier. He reports that Cambridge University researcher Christos Tsirogiannis has identified the pair of Canosan kraters in Christie's Rockefeller Plaza sale on June 8, 2012 (lot 99) from polaroids. The kraters were reported to have been in a private collection in New York, and were sold at Sotheby's New York in 1986 (30 May 1986, lot 24).

Who consigned the kraters to Sotheby's in 1986? What other material originating from Medici was passing through the New York market in that period?

I presume that the recent return of similarly sourced material to Italy has set an appropriate precedent for Christie's.

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1 comment:

kyri said...

hi david,if these kraters were coverd in mud when they were photographed[as some pieces were],or in pieces,than yes alarm bells,but didnt medici handle any legitimate pieces.was everything he handled %100 looted?certainly robin symes handled many pieces that had very long published]provenances.
we cant keep going on saying everything is "guilty by association" or can we.
kyri.

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