Popolare Vicenza treasure goes up for auction, including canvas attributed to Caravaggio

The news was long overdue, and finally the notice from the liquidators of Banca Popolare di Vicenza has arrived: the process of transferring the works of art of the bank, which is under administrative compulsory liquidation, has begun. It involves dozens of works, more than two hundred in all. It is a heritage divided into two parts: on the one hand, the 142 works of Palazzo Alberti in Prato, formerly the headquarters of the Cassa di Risparmio di Prato and then, with the merger between the two banks in 2003, became the property of Popolare Vicenza, which later went bankrupt in 2017. On the other hand, the 115 paintings, six sculptures, various furnishings and the collection of Venetian oselle from Palazzo Thiene in Vicenza, which are instead part of Popolare Vicenza’s collection. The two nuclei are then joined by a 15th-century fresco preserved in Castelfranco Veneto, at Palazzo Soranzo Novello.

The names are resounding: among many, at Palazzo Alberti there are three paintings by Ardengo Soffici, two by Bartolomeo Bimbi, two by Bernardino Mei, a Charity by Carlo Dolci, five paintings by Cesare Dandini, a Madonna and Child by Filippo Lippi, a Sacred Conversation by Fra’ Paolino, two paintings by Francesco Furini, three by Galileo Chini, a Portrait of Isabella d’Este as Flora by Justus Suttermans, two canvases by Empoli, three by Jacopo Vignali, seven sculptures by Lorenzo Bartolini, three paintings by Matteo Rosselli, two by Pietro Paolini, and two panels by Santi di Tito. And then there is the Coronation of Thorns attributed to Caravaggio, long the subject of passionate discussion among scholars. At Palazzo Thiene, on the other hand, there are four canvases by Niccolò Bambini, three by Jacopo Bassano, a Crucifix by Giovanni Bellini, a substantial core of paintings by Giulio Carpioni, five canvases by Jacopo della Vecchia, five by Gaspare Diziani, a portrait by Bonifacio Veronese, three paintings by Francesco Maffei four by Palma il Giovane, a sketch by Piazzetta, two landscapes by Marco Ricci, a portrait by Tintoretto, a Head of an Old Man by Tiepolo, a Venus and Adonis by Padovanino, and then 19th-century works by Noah Bordignon, Guglielmo Ciardi, Luigi Nono and others. The best of Tuscany on the one hand and Veneto on the other.

However, the works are bound to their respective palaces: this means that the properties qualify as collections, thus both as an exhibition unicum that cannot be physically disbanded permanently, at least as long as the constraint remains in place (and at the moment there are two judgments at the Council of State to remove the constraint from the two most important works, the Coronation attributed to Caravaggio and Bellini’s Crucifix ). As a result, the collections cannot be dispersed. Since these are restricted properties, the state can exercise its right of pre-emption, although the notice does not specify the value of the collection. And it is well specified in the documents that the effectiveness of the sale of each individual lot will be conditional on the state not exercising its preemption. Those interested in purchasing will still have to submit their offers, which are non-binding, by midnight on Feb. 28, 2022.

What are the assumptions in the field? Palazzo Thiene was recently purchased, for 4.4 million euros, by the City of Vicenza, while Palazzo Alberti is owned by Intesa Sanpaolo. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the two collection nuclei will be acquired by the entities that own the two buildings: they could therefore be transformed into two museums. May they perhaps be opened continuously to the public.

Pictured is a detail of the Coronation of Thorns attributed to Caravaggio.

Popolare Vicenza treasure goes up for auction, including canvas attributed to Caravaggio

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