ITALY: Spoils

One of the greatest art collectors the world has known was Napoleon Bonaparte. His hobby cost him little. From his far-snatched empire the Little Corporal gleaned many a masterpiece, filled the Tuileries and the Musee Napoleon with countless plundered art treasures. He pilfered so much, from so many places, that the record of his thefts has been a subject of much fruitless speculation to art historians.

The University of Rome last week saw its chance. After Napoleon’s downfall, France was forced to return much Italian swag—notably the Horses of St. Mark’s—but Italy was never satisfied that it had recovered all its rightful treasures. Last week Fascista, the University’s official publication, listed demands for more: the Mona Lisa, other Da Vinci works, masterpieces by Titian, which include a portrait of the French King, Francis I.

To a few isolated examples of still-unreturned Napoleonic plunder, such as Fra Angelico’s Coronation of the Virgin, the Italian title is clear-cut. But some of the Italian claims are unverifiable or downright shady. It is true that the Mona Lisa once hung in Bonaparte’s bedroom at the Tuileries, but that was three centuries after its purchase by Francis I, onetime patron of its painter. Records indicate that the picture remained in France until its theft from the Louvre in 1911 by an Italian. But Fascista was longer on acquisitive patriotism than on logic. Said Fascista:

“Because these art works have been carefully packed by the French to protect them against wartime air raids and bombardments their return would be an exceedingly easy matter. It would be necessary only to forward them from France to Italy in the packing cases in which they now rest.”