The sale of an El Greco Romanian heritage painting blocked

The sale of a painting “Saint Sebastian” by El Greco (Crete, 1541 – Toledo, 1614), considered Romanian heritage, has been blocked at Christie’s by the Romanian State, according to an announcement made on January 31 by Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu.

The painting, an oil on canvas measuring 90.2 x 70.5 cm, had an estimate of 7 million to 9 million dollars. It is listed on the auction house website as the property of a distinguished private collector.

Hidden from the public eye for more than four decades, this Saint Sebastian is a late masterpiece by one of the best-known painters of the early modern era, Doménikos Theotokópoulos, nicknamed El Greco. Expressively executed in the sacred style and dated around 1600-1605, it can be identified as one of two works on this subject in the artist’s studio at the time of his death in 1614.

This is one of three surviving depictions of St Sebastian by El Greco. One is in the cathedral of Palencia (dated 1577-1578) and another in the Museo del Prado (dated 1610-1614), each marking a different moment in his career.

Official provenance

As to the provenance of the painting in the auction, the following are specified: from the artist’s studio in Toledo at the time of his death, it is included in the post-mortem inventories of April 12 and July 7, 1614, and passed through descent to his son; later, Jorge Manuel Theotocópuli (1578-1631), Toledo, appears as the owner, and the painting is included in his inventory of August 7, 1621.

King Carol I of Romania (1839 – 1914) is mentioned that he kept it at the Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest until 1898, and bequeathed it to the Romanian Crown in his will of February 14 and 26, 1899. It was owned by the Romanian Crown from 1914 to 1947, then the property was transferred to King Michael I of Romania (1921-2017) on November 11-12, 1947, with the consent of the Romanian government, which sold it in 1976 to Wildenstein & Co. of New York. The current anonymous owner bought it in 2010 through Giraud Pissarro Ségalot, New York.

The work was publicly exhibited, according to the auction house, at the Wildenstein Paris, “Exposition organizée par la Gazette des Beaux-Arts: El Greco”, in 1937, and at the Museo del Prado, Madrid; National Gallery of Art, Washington DC; The Toledo Museum of Art; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, from 1 April 1982 to 6 February 1983.

The decision, taken at the Paris Court of Justice

According to Ciolacu, the Ministry of Finance is handling the case, and this “stage gives us confidence that we will definitively recover, after decades, this priceless painting. (…) On behalf of the Romanian Government, I have mandated through two memorandums adopted this month the responsible ministries and our lawyers to pursue both the recovery of the painting through the litigation initiated at the Paris Court of Justice and the blocking of the auction scheduled for February 5 in New York”.

The painting will remain at the auction house until February 28, and the government will take steps to recover it.
The decision will be taken by the Paris Court of Justice.

Photo credit: Christie’s

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