Carabinieri recover a very important Renaissance sculpture by Matteo Civitali

A very important Renaissance sculpture made by Matteo Civitali (Lucca, 1436 - 1501), one of the greatest sculptors of the 15th century in Tuscany and the foremost of the Lucca Renaissance, has been recovered. The sculpture, a bust of Christ datable to about 1470, had been stolen by the Nazis between Feb. 7 and 8, 1944: it was located in the church of Santa Maria della Rosa in Lucca and was removed by soldiers occupying the area. Carabinieri from the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit discovered that the work was among the assets of the heir of a collector residing in the province of Lucca, who will not be investigated as he is innocent of any wrongdoing. The terracotta sculpture was found in November as a result of an investigation that has been going on for more than two decades and has since led to the recovery of about fifty works throughout the country, all of which have been returned to the places that held them.

Matteo Civitali’s Christ by Matteo Civitali, a work of the highest quality, had been catalogued in the late 1930s by the Superintendency of Florence (photographs taken then are preserved today in the Photographic Cabinet of the Uffizi Galleries), and following the theft had been reported in a 1947 note of the Ministry of Public Education (which was in charge of the historical-artistic heritage before the Ministry of Cultural Heritage was established). In the 1950s the work had also been listed by Rodolfo Siviero, the scholar who helped recover many works stolen by the Nazis, and was on the list of works to be found.

A ceremony was held this morning to return the work, with carabinieri returning Matteo Civitali’s sculpture to the church of Santa Maria della Rosa. The sculpture, which with its dating to around 1470 would be one of the earliest known works of the Lucca artist, reveals the strongly pathetic and dramatic language that would later be typical of Matteo Civitali’s mature production (as evident from the Vir dolorum or the busts of Christ preserved at the National Museum of Villa Guinigi da Lucca).

Image: Matteo Civitali, bust of Christ (c. 1470; terracotta, 85 x 50 cm; Lucca, Santa Maria della Rosa)

Carabinieri recover a very important Renaissance sculpture by Matteo Civitali

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