French minister: "Italy will lend us the Vitruvian Man." But Bonisoli denies: "nothing has been decided"

Yesterday, during a TV broadcast on broadcaster LCI, the French culture minister, Franck Riester, had announced that, thanks to culture, France and Italy have come closer together after recent tensions, but not only that: the minister also stated that, for the exhibition on Leonardo da Vinci to be held at the Louvre in the fall of this year (it will begin in October), Italy would guarantee the loan of two works, theVitruvian Man from the Gallerie dell’Accademia and theSelf-Portrait (which is actually no longer considered as such by the most up-to-date critics, since it tends to be identified as Portrait of a Man). During the interview, Riester let it be known that the decision to loan the two works would be the result of a joint agreement with Italy after meetings, in Milan and France, with Cultural Heritage Minister Alberto Bonisoli.

A few hours later, however, Bonisoli’s sharp denial came: “I am forced to deny the words of French Culture Minister Franck Riester,” he wrote in an official note. “I remain surprised by the statements of my counterpart announcing the loan of the Vitruvian Man and Leonardo’s Self-Portrait to the Louvre. I specify that, during my institutional visit with Head of State Sergio Mattarella, nothing was decided on either side.”

Image: Leonardo da Vinci, The Proportions of the Human Body According to Vitruvius - Vitruvian Man, detail (c. 1490; metal point, pen and ink, touches of watercolor on white paper, 34.4 x 24.5 cm; Venice, Gallerie dellAccademia)

French minister: "Italy will lend us the Vitruvian Man." But Bonisoli denies: "nothing has been decided"

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