They say that history is always written by the winners and not the losers, and that therefore distorted versions of the reality that was and can never be revived reach our ears. However, what happens when the defeated claim to be the owners of their own history? That, as is happening, events are reviewed and with them the art that accompanies them. Thus, Hiscox, an international company specializing in art insurance, reviews the works that were looted or acquired in illegal archaeological excavations and that this 2022 they have returned to their places of origin.
Such has been the wave that we have experienced this year that in Italy, a country particularly affected by the looting of its cultural heritage, they have created a singular Museum of Salvaged Art, a transit space in which the works of art recovered from illegal excavations and illegal traffic can be stored and exhibited to the public for a few months, before returning to their places of origin. In turn, the countries in which looted collections are owned have also become aware of this problem and, for example, the museum in the German city of Bavariaas well as those of NYhave chosen to investigate the provenance of the works seized during the Nazi era and, in turn, look for the heirs of the owners of these works.
«These returns, without a doubt, are Good news, because it means that works of art return to the nations where they were created and to their rightful owners. Despite the fact that these robberies occurred many years ago, they are also happening today. In these cases, having a work of art insured can make the difference between its recovery or not, since in case of having insurance and the work appears later, the owner always has the option of recovering it again and taking it home» , explains Eva Peribáñez, technical manager of the Department of Art and Private Clients at Hiscox Spain. These are some of the most representative cases.
Works by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz that have returned to Spain
Two 17th-century books return from New York
Traditionally, religious spaces in general and convents in particular were the main refuge for books and, specifically, the convent of the Discalced Carmelites of Santa Ana (Seville) kept five volumes from the 17th century attributed to Sor Juana Inés de la Cross. It is not known exactly how, but the books ended up in the hands of a resident of Catalonia who died a decade ago whose bibliographic collection passed into the hands of a bookstore in Madrid, which in turn sold it to a Mexican businessman and, upon his death, the works were acquired by an American who put them up for auction in New York. However, two of the books retained a property stamp placed by the nuns themselves (ex libris), which raised suspicions, the auction was halted (with expected prices between 80,000 and 100,000 euros) and, therefore, the works were finally returned to Spain.
‘Mater Dolorosa’ and ‘Ecce Homo’ have returned to Poland
‘Mater Dolorosa’ and ‘Ecce Homo’ make their way back from Pontevedra to Poland
If Spain has been the protagonist of history as a looted country, it has also been on the other side of the coin as a place to exhibit looted works. Specifically, in the Museo de Pontevedra the diptych ‘Mater Dolorosa’ and ‘Ecce Homo’, attributed to the Dutch painter Dieric Bouts, the main representative of the Leuven School, had been on display for 28 years after being stolen in a Nazi pillage. However, this year the irregular origin of it has been demonstrated and it has been agreed to return it to the Polish Government, which in turn must be in charge of returning them to the legitimate heirs.
Two of the returned 16th-century majolica plates
The heirs of a Jewish couple recover art stolen from their parents
The Second World War was a particularly turbulent period in terms of looting of art and the previous one was not an isolated case, but rather this type of theft became common and the works are found today throughout the world. In the case of the Netherlands, the Boijmans van Beuningen Museum, in the city of Rotterdam, has returned several pieces of art to the descendants of a Jewish family murdered by the Nazis. These are six majolica plates from the 16th century, which until now were part of the museum’s collection, belonging to the heirs of the Jewish couple Fritz and Louise Gutmann, who died in a concentration camp.
One of the fragments of the Parthenon that the Vatican will return to Greece
Greece will recover more than forty archaeological pieces of its heritage
If a civilization has been rich in artistic heritage, it has undoubtedly been the Greek, so it is not surprising that some of the returns of works this year have ended up in this country. The Hellenic country will recover 47 valuable archaeological objects that were part of the art collection of Michael Steinhardt, an 81-year-old businessman and billionaire philanthropist living in New York who was sentenced to return 180 works of art and antiquities valued at 62 million euros and stolen in the world in the last decades.
The part of the loot belonging to Greece returned to their country last year, among which were a Minoan larnax (small ceramic sarcophagus for storing bones), a kouros (athlete figure) torso, a bronze bust of a griffin, Cycladic vessels, statuettes and bronze swords. And if we talk about great Greek works of art that are outside their country, the Parthenon is, without a doubt, the most outstanding. Part of its friezes have been in the British Museum since 1805. In the future, they could also be returned to their country of origin thanks to the negotiations that began this year between the two states. Here it should be noted that fragments of the Parthenon will soon return to their place of origin and that is that Pope Francis has decided to return to Greece three fragments of the Parthenon in Athens, which were in the Pontifical Collections and in the Vatican Museums.
One of the works returned by the Metropolitan Museum of New York
Met antiques return to Italy and Egypt
Antiques dealers have traditionally been a big problem for the art market and this was confirmed this year by the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET) in New York, which had 27 antiques worth 13 million in its collection. of euros from ancient Rome and Egypt that had been looted by these traffickers. After being seized by the Manhattan Prosecutor’s Office, 21 works will return to Italy and the other 6 to Egypt. Among them were works such as the Egyptian portrait ‘Lady with a blue cloak’, valued at 1.2 million euros; and a Roman kylix, or drinking cup, in terracotta from 470 BC. C. valued at 1.2 million dollars.
‘Orpheus and the Sirens’
The sculptural ensemble ‘Orpheus and the Sirens’ returns to Italy
In 1976, J. Paul Getty, founder of the current Getty Museum in Los Angeles, acquired for 540,000 euros the set of ancient terracotta sculptures of ‘Orpheus and the Sirens’, dated between 350 and 300 BC. However, this year it has been discovered that the works came from an illegal archaeological excavation carried out in Italy and the American museum has proceeded to return the work.