Late last month, just days before it planned to offer a major El Greco painting in an Old Masters sale in New York with an estimate of $7 million to $9 million, Christie’s withdrew the lot, following objections from Romanian officials. The news was first reported by the Romanian Journal on Friday.
Romania contends that the work is part of “the state’s patrimony.” In 1947, the picture was transferred from the collection of the abolished Royal Crown of Romania to King Michael, who had been forced to abdicate by the country’s communist government. The king went into exile, sold the work in the 1970s, and did not return to the country until the 1990s.
“Christie’s takes these matters seriously and out of an abundance of caution is withdrawing the lot at this time,” an auction house rep said in a statement. “We look forward to selling this unique and spectacular work at a later date.” The firm has paused any potential sale at least through the end of the month; the work had been scheduled to be offered today.
Romania has reportedly filed legal papers in Paris. Its prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, a member of the center-left Social Democratic Party, said that he has “confidence that we will definitely recover, after decades, this painting of inestimable value,” according to a statement quoted by the Romanian Journal. Ciolacu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The El Greco had belonged to the art-collecting King Carol I, Romania’s first monarch, who bequeathed it to the Crown of Romania when he died in 1914, according to the report. The king reportedly stipulated that his entire collection would “remain forever and in its entirety in the country, as the property of the Crown of Romania.”
According to the Romanian Journal report, Christie’s auction listing for the piece said that the ruling Romanian government “allegedly” transferred the work to King Michael in 1947. The work was sold by the king in 1976 “with the firm Wildenstein & Co.” in New York, and, according to the Romanian Journal, “was later purchased by the current owner, through Giraud Pissarro Ségalot,” a now-defunct art advisory, “also in New York, in 2010.”
