Canova's plaster cast of Cupid and Psyche standing: it's a record

An important adjudication for a plaster cast of the famous group Amore e Psiche stanti by Antonio Canova (Possagno, 1757 - Venice, 1822): the work, which went up for auction on Thursday at the Roman Bonino house, was in fact sold for €1,228,500, six times the initial estimate of €200-300,000. It is not a work that is due to the master’s hand: while obviously his is the invention, the plaster in question is believed to have been materially executed by his collaborators Vincenzo Malpieri and Giuseppe Torrenti, who specialized in the execution of plaster casts in Canova’s atelier. The marble was made in 1796-1797 for British Colonel John Campbell but was later sold to Joachim Murat. There is also another, identical version that actually reached the first patron, who, however, later gave it to Napoleon’s wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais, and it was eventually sold to Tsar Alexander I of Russia. The first version is now in the Louvre, the second in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

The adjudication is important because it is the all-time record for a plaster cast by Canova, as well as the fourth achievement for one of his sculptures. The Cupidand Psyche standing is in fact preceded in the history of Canova adjudications at auction by only three marbles, all sold by foreign auction houses: in first place is the Bust of Peace sold in 2018 by Sotheby’s in London for £5.3 million, in second place the Bust of Joachim Murat sold in 2017 by Christie’s in Paris for €4.3 million, and in third place the Bust of Lucretia d’Este sold in 2019 by the Hôtel des Ventes in Monte-Carlo for €2.8 million. In Italy, the highest adjudication for a work by Canova concerns another plaster cast, for Venus and Adonis, sold in 1999 by Finarte in Milan for 1.1 billion lire (in that case the initial estimate was doubled). By contrast, the Magdalene found last year in England went unsold.

The plaster cast of Cupidand Psyche standing is one of those left in Canova’s studio after the artist’s death. In 1829 it passed to his universal heir, his brother Giambattista Sartori, who donated the plaster cast to Count Antonietta Bianchi and Filippo Canal. It remained in the family collection until 2004, when it was purchased by Veneto Banca. The work is thus part of the collection of the bank put into compulsory liquidation in 2017, and was located at the entrance to the bank’s business center. Proceeds from the sale of the work, as well as those of other treasures belonging to Veneto Banca, will go to the institution’s creditors. It is, moreover, a work subject to notification by the Ministry of Culture, which means that it will not be able to leave national borders: insiders were therefore surprised by the final award, since state constraint usually tends to keep prices low.

Canova's plaster cast of Cupid and Psyche standing: it's a record

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