Rubens painting seized from exhibition in Genoa. Illegal exportation is suspected

One of the paintings from the Rubens exhibition in Genoa has been seized. Ansa reports: the painting is the Risen Christ Appearing to His Mother placed at the end of the itinerary. It is a work under restoration, displayed in the Genoese exhibition still with ongoing intervention to show the public the image of the Virgin as it was conceived before being covered with a second drafting that moved it to another position.

The seizure was carried out by the Carabinieri of the Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Culturale (Cultural Heritage Protection Unit): in fact, illegal exportation of cultural property is suspected (four people are under investigation). According to the reconstruction of the Genoa Prosecutor’s Office, the work was allegedly smuggled out of Italy as a generic Flemish school painting, and then authenticated as a work by Rubens once it arrived in Prague. The allegation, however, is that the work was smuggled out of Italy when it was already known that it would be authenticated as a product of Rubens’ hand.

According to the investigation, coordinated by prosecutor Eugenia Menichetti and deputy prosecutor Paolo D’Ovidio, it emerged that the painting belonged to a Genoese family that allegedly sold it for 300,000 euros to an antiquarian who, in turn, then resold it to another private individual for more than 3 million euros. The work has since returned to Italy, where it is being exhibited for the very first time in the halls of the Ducal Palace.

Pictured is a detail of the seized painting

Rubens painting seized from exhibition in Genoa. Illegal exportation is suspected

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