Word: ginevra
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Last week that one was in the U.S. Washington's National Gallery of Art announced that it had acquired Leonardo's 15⅛-in. by 14½-in. oil portrait of Ginevra dei Benci, a 15th century nobleman's wife. The seller was Prince Franz Josef II, head of tiny (61 sq. mi.) Liechtenstein, tucked snugly between Austria and Switzerland. Price: an estimated $5,000,000, more than twice the previous record of $2,300,000, paid in 1961 for Rembrandt's Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer by Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum. And while...
Occasionally his sense of showmanship swept him overboard. Asked recently if the bust of a woman purported to be after Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra di Benci, which the Met bought at a Parke-Bernet auction for $225, was really a Leonardo, Rorimer winced, said, "If you never see it exhibited in the Met, you will know...
...most famous of Prince Franz Josef II's 1,500 oils is Leonardo da Vinci's Ginevra del Bend, a painting that is strikingly evocative of the Louvre's Mona Lisa. It is the only recognized Leonardo not yet on a museum wall. Such may not long be the case. In a front-page story, the New York Times last week reported that Ginevra* had caught the eye of the prince of collectors. Said the headline: $6 MILLION...
...With the Ginevra, Simon had even more reason for caution. Of the world's dozen Da Vinci experts, there are still two or three who question whether it is certainly by Leonardo's hand. Then, especially in the lower portion, it is in less than the pristine condition of the Mona Lisa. So when the prince's agents approached the meticulous millionaire with an offer to sell it for $7,000,000, he insisted that the price be reduced to $6,000,000 and that he have the right to take it to experts outside Liechtenstein...
...risk an adverse verdict. When negotiations broke down, the prince's art dealer, Josef Farago, issued a categorical denial: "The prince would not dream of selling the Leonardo." As for the prince, he was, as one to the manner born, off hunting in Austria. Does this mean that Ginevra del Bend will never leave Liechtenstein? Said a Liechtensteinian noble last week: "Eventually some fool may offer $10 million, and then...