State Seeks to Recover El Greco Painting from Royal Collection

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Christie’s New York auction house informed the Romanian Government on Friday that it had ordered the suspension until February 28 of the auction for the sale of the painting “San Sebastian”, by the Spanish painter El Greco, a work of art that belonged to the former collection of the Royal Crown of Romania, and then came into the possession of King Michael, government sources said on Friday.

The auction house’s measure was taken after the intervention of the Romanian state, which has a dispute at the Paris Court through which it is trying to recover this painting. The painting is estimated to be worth between 7 and 9 million dollars.

The artwork was to be sold by auction on February 5, 2025, but the auction has been suspended until the end of February, during which time the painting cannot be returned to its current owner.

The Romanian state is trying to stop the sale, at the renowned auction house Christie’s New York, and to recover the painting “San Sebastian”, an artwork that belonged to the former collection of the Royal Crown of Romania, and then came into the possession of King Michael. Information previously presented in the public space claimed that the latter had sold El Greco’s masterpiece, estimated now at a value of between 7 and 9 million dollars, to a major Franco-American dealer.

According to an official ministerial document, analyzed by Profit.ro, the Government approved a memorandum “regarding the institutional steps that must be taken by Romania, including the initiation of procedures (civil/criminal) aimed at ensuring the legal protection of the work of art – a painting by El Greco entitled San Sebastian, which is the subject of the auction on February 5, 2025 organized by the auction house Christie’s New York – and the restoration of the situation prior to its alienation from the state’s patrimony, but also of any enforcement or other procedure necessary to take effective possession of the painting.”

Prime Minister Ciolacu confirmed the steps taken by the Government to block the sale of the painting. Blocking the auction sale of the painting “Saint Sebastian” by the famous artist “El Greco”, which is part of the Romanian heritage, is a great success of the Romanian state and the team of lawyers representing us. I congratulate the representatives of the Ministry of Finance who are managing this case and all those involved in this stage victory that gives us confidence that we will definitely recover, after decades, this painting of inestimable value”, the Prime Minister said.

He pointed out that the painting “Saint Sebastian” by “El Greco” is a unique part of the cultural heritage and the national art collection of Romania. The painting belonged to King Carol I, the first monarch of Romania, before being bequeathed to the Crown of Romania upon his death in 1914.

“This painting, along with other works of art, left Romania in 1947 and have never returned to the country since then. 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 by a famous auction house,” the Prime Minister said.

He claims that “the auction was stopped and the painting was retained by the auction house,” being a first step towards the definitive recovery of this painting, which “is unequivocally the property of the Romanian state.”

Carol I, an admirer of El Greco

The first monarch of Romania, Carol I, who ascended the throne in 1866, began to acquire works for the Royal Collection extensively in 1879, with the aim of decorating the royal palaces. With the advice of the scholar and collector Felix Bamberg (1820-1893), the king developed a particular taste for Spanish painting, which, although popular in France, was less known and widespread in Central and Eastern Europe.

Carol I owned several paintings by El Greco, most of which belonged to King Louis Philippe of France (1773-1850), from his Spanish gallery at the Louvre. The National Museum of Art of Romania currently owns three important works by El Greco, “Marriage of the Virgin”, “The Martyrdom of Saint Maurice”, “The Adoration of the Shepherds”.

How the painting left Romania

King Carol I bequeathed the painting to the institution of the Crown of Romania, in his will of February 14 and 26, 1899. The Crown collection had been established at the end of the 19th century from public funds, through purchases by the Brătianu Government, and Carol I mentioned that his entire collection, cataloged by the royal house librarian Leo Bachelin in 1898, “will remain forever and in its entirety in the country, as the property of the Crown of Romania”.

According to the auction house Christie’s, in November 1947, the Romanian Government allegedly transferred the work to the ownership of King Michael.

“The ownership was transferred to King Michael I of Romania (1921-2017), November 11-12, 1947, with the consent of the Romanian Government”, shows Christie’s, which then specifies that the work was sold by the king in 1976 “with the firm Wildenstein & Co.” in New York, and was later purchased by the current owner, through Giraud Pissarro Segalot, also in New York, in 2010.

It is not clear from the auction house’s statement whether the former sovereign sold the painting – indicated in this regard in public statements, including by Christie’s – directly to the Wildenstein firm or through it.

Transactions of the work are recorded in 1976 and 2010 and the work is listed as coming from the former royal collection. King Michael I left Romania in January 1948, shortly after the transfer of ownership and after being forced to abdicate by the new communist regime.

The work was exhibited in Paris in 1937, and later at the Prado Museum in Madrid, Paris, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Toledo Museum of Art and, most recently, at the Dallas Museum of Art, between April 1, 1982 and February 6, 1983.

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2 Comments
  1. Panagiotis Spyridis says

    Doménikos Theotokópoulos says… I want to go to Romania.

  2. Panagiotis Spyridis says

    Doménikos Theotokópoulos also says… rename Herastrau park back to its original name.

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