Odescalchi Palace in Rome, wild restorations and dispersed collection. The case in Parliament

Wild restorations, erased historical identity, dispersion abroad of works of art: this is what has been happening for years, in Rome, at Palazzo Odescalchi, home to a precious collection put together since the seventeenth century, and which has lost, however, numerous pieces in recent years. A spoliation so important that it has reached Parliament: to denounce it is Vincenza Bruno Bossio, deputy of the Democratic Party.

What has happened at the Odescalchi Palace? We find ourselves, meanwhile, in one of the most precious buildings of seventeenth-century Rome, formerly owned by the Colonna family and then passed in 1622 to the Ludovisi family, who owned it until 1657 and, precisely between 1622 and 1623, had it renovated by one of the most important architects of the time, Carlo Maderno. In 1661, the building passed to the Chigi family (so much so that it is also known as Palazzo Chigi-Odescalchi), who around 1665 called Gian Lorenzo Bernini to transform it (today’s facade is attributable to him). The Odescalchi acquired it in 1745, with Prince Baldassarre: under the Odescalchi other great architects (Niccolò Salvi and Luigi Vanvitelli) enlarged it. In the meantime, the Odescalchi began to fill the palace with works from their collection: standing out above all is the celebrated Conversion of St. Paul, a work of about 1600-1601 by Caravaggio, which came to the Odescalchi by inheritance, one of the rare works by Merisi still in private hands.

Reconstructing the vicissitudes of Palazzo Odescalchi was, in mid-July, an article in the daily Echo dai Palazzi, according to which Princess Giulia Odescalchi is said to have put apartments inside Palazzo Odescalchi up for sale at derisory sums for such a building (we are talking about 4,500 euros per square meter, a figure that corresponds to about a third of the market value of palaces of equal importance, and which instead corresponds to what is demanded in Rome for an apartment in the Eur-Tintoretto area). The selling off of the apartments would also go hand in hand with the dispersal of the collections. Among the works missing from the roll call, for example, are the 31 notebooks with drawings by Michelangelo and Raphael, belonging to the oldest nucleus of the Odescalchi collection, purchased by the heirs of Christina of Sweden. “Vanished into thin air,” says theEcho from the Palaces, “scattered around the world, bought by some art trafficker to embellish private collections.” Still others ended up abroad, others have recently re-emerged on the market.

And then there is the chapter of restorations: “structural upheavals,” writes theEcho from the Palaces, with corridors that cut through the painted and gilded coffered ceilings nullifying the Chigi emblems, the walls “gutted to create more comfortable passages as well as open perimeter ones to accommodate bathtubs and whirlpool baths,” apartments fractionalized erasing the original spatial unity. Also according to theEcho from the Palaces, there would be to add the fact that in 1989, Giulia Odescalchi and her siblings reported in their declaration of inheritance that they had inherited only six minor paintings, while instead there were hundreds of works in the palace. “And one does not need to be an expert to understand that even then the groundwork was already being laid for the departure abroad of so many works of art,” the Roman newspaper’s editorial board concludes.

Congresswoman Bruno Bossio, in her question, lists several major works that went missing: “(1) monogrammer ”MO“’s 1566 painting ”Court Festival in Garden of Italian Villa,“ sold to Trynity Fine Art, London (29 Bruton Street); (2) The ”Resurrection“ by Saturnino Gatti (1463-1518) oil and tempera on panel, from a bedroom, stripped of its cumbersome gilt frame to make it more easily exportable, was for sale at Christie’s New York, auction no. 8338 on Jan. 12, 1996 ”Important Old Master Paintings“ lot 40; 3) Marcantonio Franceschini (1648-1729) ”country scene“ (”the most important and congenial by the artist“ Dwight C. Miller 14 ag. 1988) drawn by Fragonard (London, British Museum); 4) Gaudenzio Ferrari’s ”Raphael of the Alps“ the ”Holy Family“ (the only painting sold to appear in the probate report); 5) Vanvitelli’s ”Views of Tivoli“ and Grottaferrata; 6) 31 notebooks of drawings of Queen Christina of Sweden. The one with 99 autographed drawings by Pietro da Cortona and Ciro Ferri was seized at the Fiumicino Customs House by the Guardia di Finanza following an attempt at clandestine exportation. In 1997 the matter of Giulia Odescalchi’s notebook ”having largely elapsed the terms provided by law without anyone having taken action to assert the right to the restitution of the property“ were assigned to the Institute for Graphics.” Another Odescalchi notebook with landscapes by Francesco Allegrini recently surfaced on the London antiquities market. Of the other 29 precious notebooks, nothing more is known; the paintings by Lucio Massari (1569-1633) “Faith and Thamar” (No. 38 inv.) and “Susanna among the Old Men” (No. 36 inv.) (among the greatest Bolognese painters with his works in the Capitoline Museums, Uffizi and Louvre); having already sold several works to London and New York, the preventive seizure of the Odescalchi paintings would avert this circumstance as well."

For Bruno Bossio, there are no doubts: this is the disruption of a set of very high cultural and historical profile that has inflicted a severe blow to Capitoline culture. The deputy therefore asks the minister of cultural heritage, Dario Franceschini, to intervene “to protect the palace and the important collections to avert the irreversible damage that has been taking shape before everyone’s eyes for years.” And it should also be added that, should the allegations turn out to be true, one has to wonder how it was possible for such an important collection to be dispersed for so many years without anyone lifting a finger. Because we are not dealing here, points out theEcho from the Palaces, “with a private affair of a noble Roman family,” but with public affairs “that would require a preventive seizure of the Odescalchi family’s assets and public intervention, specifically by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage.”

Pictured: the facade of the Odescalchi Palace. Ph. Credit

Odescalchi Palace in Rome, wild restorations and dispersed collection. The case in Parliament

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