"LONDON. The Italian government has seized the archive of the painter and writer Giorgio Vasari (1511-74), sold to a Russian company late last year, because it does “not believe that the Moscow-based firm actually exists”, says the lawyer representing the archive owners.The move is the latest twist in a saga that began last autumn with the sale of the Vasari documents to the Russian conglomerate Ross Engineering for €150m. A contract was signed in September by the late owner of the archive, Giovanni Festari, and Vasilij Stepanov of Ross Engineering. However, questions were raised about the authenticity of the deal with sources in the Russian art world expressing doubts over the transaction, prompting speculation that the alleged purchase was devised to push the Italian government into making a counter offer. The Italian ministry of culture then placed an export licence bar on the archive sale for six months."
Very, very weird.
No comments:
Post a Comment