Veneto Regional Administrative Court suspends loan of Vitruvian Man to Louvre: Leonardo's drawing not going to France for now

The Veneto Regional Administrative Court has suspended the loan to the Louvre of Leonardo da Vinci’sVitruvian Man, which had been ordered by the Italy-France memorandum of understanding for the Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael exhibitions. The administrative court, taking into account that the Louvre exhibition (where Leonardo’s celebrated drawing is to be displayed) will open its doors on Nov. 24, decided to bring forward the discussion in an anticipated council chamber to Oct. 16, in which the TAR will decide what to do. The court thus upheld the appeal filed in recent hours by Italia Nostra.

The Veneto Regional Administrative Court is also suspending the memorandum of understanding for the exchange of works between Italy and France because, according to the Veneto judges, it would violate “the principle of the legal system whereby public offices are distinguished into organs of direction and control on the one hand, and of implementation and management on the other.” For now, therefore, theVitruvian Man cannot go to France.

From the Ministry of Cultural Heritage the reaction is very harsh: “from a first reading of the press anticipations,” they comment from the MiBACT’s legislavito office, “the reference to an alleged violation of the ’principle of the legal system by which public offices are distinguished into organs of direction and control on the one hand, and of implementation and management on the other’ in the exchange of works between Italian museums and the Louvre is completely incomprehensible. The agreement signed in Paris was exclusively the recognition by the ministers of decisions and acts all taken, on the Italian side, by the competent technical offices of the MIBAC. The loan of each Italian work was already authorized at the time the agreement was signed, which, moreover, stipulates that the exchange of works should take place according to the specific protection requirements dictated by the individual museums. A simple reading of the documents easily demonstrates all this, and at the October 16 hearing all this will emerge with absolute clarity and transparency.”

There is no comment from the Louvre.

At this link is our editorial on the matter.

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)

Veneto Regional Administrative Court suspends loan of Vitruvian Man to Louvre: Leonardo's drawing not going to France for now

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