Parmigianino at auction, here's why the state decided not to participate

We receive and publish from Tomaso Montanari some clarifications and answers regarding Federico Giannini ’s article yesterday(About how the State let a masterpiece by Parmigianino slip under its nose). In the meantime, the professor, president of the Scientific Technical Committee for Fine Arts, clarifies that he was not appointed president by Minister Bonisoli: “I was designated as a member of that committee by the CUN (National University Council), and then elected president by the other three components (professors Giulia Orofino and Maria Cristina Terzaghi, and architect Emanuela Carpani). A scientific appointment, not a political one, then.”

On why the state did not participate in the auction to secure Parmigianino’s Saturno e Filira work, this is Tomaso Montanari’s response: “the committee examined the proposal in good time, and noted that ’this is an interesting painting, at the center of an animated scientific debate since its discovery.’ But also noted ’that precisely because of attributional doubts the estimate appears too high. It is certainly a work with an important collector’s history, worthy of being studied and deepened, but at the moment the attributional uncertainty does not make possible a convinced acquisition of it to the state patrimony’.”

On the alleged conflict mentioned by historian Dario Pasquini, and which, according to the latter, would have prevented Tomaso Montanari from signing the public appeal to bring the work back to Italy, to Federico Giannini’s request for clarification the professor replied thus, "Dr. Pasquini decided to make known a private letter of mine. It is then worth quoting literally its key sentence: ’I remain defenseless, chairing the committee that could give the opinion for a possible public purchase.’ I did not theorize the existence of any conflict of principle, I communicated to him the decision to remain THIS TIME defiladed. Other times, yes, I have found myself soliciting in public-as a last resort-purchases for which I had found the Ministry’s doors closed. This time there was no need, because I knew the proposal would come to the committee’s table. Why not tell the loquacious Pasquini? Because the news of the State’s possible participation in an auction is dutifully confidential: for reasons that anyone familiar with the auction mechanism can guess.“ Finally, on what Pasquini wrote, Montanari closes, ”Every citizen has the right to criticize, even in the most bitter way, this and other committee decisions. If he then knows what he is talking about, even better."

Parmigianino, Saturno e Filira (oil on panel, 75.6 x 64.1 cm)

Parmigianino at auction, here's why the state decided not to participate

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