Another Museum Theft in Italy

Pisanello. Madonna of the Quail
(c. 1420), Source:
Wikimedia Commons

The museums of Italy are plagued by red tape, nepotism and funding shortages, and the whole museum system has long been in need of an overhaul. In recent years we have become increasingly aware of scandalously bad security problems which have led to many thefts from Italian museums. As many as seventeen paintings were stolen from the Castelvecchio Museum in Italy – one of the finest civic collections in northern Italy – on the evening of 19 November, they included the works: Pisanello, Madonna of the Quail; Jacopo Bellini, Penitent St Jerome; Mantegna, Holy Family with a Saint; Gian Francesco Caroto, Portrait of a Young Boy Holding a Child’s Drawing; Rubens, Lady of the Campions; Hans de Jode, Seaport.

See: Thomas Marks: 'It is hard to overstate the gravity of the Castelvecchio thefts' Apollo Magazine Nov 25, 2015

The Italian museum sector has been in a shambles for a long time. The country is obviously not up to the task of looking after the heritage that it so desperately clings on to. They admit it themselves and successive culture minister to institute reforms that will improve the situation, despite a shake up of Italian museum directorships the situation goes from bad to worse.

the details of this raid indicate that inadequate security measures were in place. The gang of three thieves knew exactly when to make their move, when only one security guard and a cashier were on the premises at the close of the day, in that window between the museum closing and its alarm system being activated for the night. They knew when the building was vulnerable – but should it ever have been this vulnerable? [...]  In a blog for La Reppublica, the combative art historian Tomaso Montanari has expressed his concerns that this episode may harbinger further thefts, given how badly safeguarded are many of the museums in the country. This locally run museum, he went on, has been ‘massacred by budget cuts’ [...].

Italy's grossly underfunded, over-bureaucratic cultural establishment is not up to the task of protecting the heritage. The endemic lack of effective and honest governance negatively impacts the preservation of Italy's cultural heritage. "Given the dismal performance of Italy's public sector", Dave Welsh sagely writes,

"Italy's antiquities and coin dealers should be allowed to sell not just to other Italians, but to the world. Each MOU has already called for Italy to ease the process for granting export permits for artifacts legally sold within Italy itself, something that has not happened (along with much else) because of Italy's choking bureaucracy. AAMD advocates opening up the Italian auction market so it can not only be a source of legitimately acquired artifacts, but help bring much needed money to help fund Italy's underfunded cultural establishment".

Dealers and collectors have been repeating this advice for many years, but over in Italy, the navel-gazing lawmakers of Italy seem not to able to break away from the indoctrination of archeologists and see the light.