Italy

Art marketarchive

Cross-border buoyancy in the European Old Master market

Plotting national tastes and identifying certain general market trends

Historyarchive

Letter discovery suggests inter-war bell rivalry

The letter was written by Giacomo Boni and dates from 1925

Art crimearchive

Revealed: the Mafia’s interest in archaeology

Esteemed artworld professionals have been arrested as part of a wide-reaching investigation into antiquities smuggling with links to an ongoing New York court case.

Ferrara pays homage to Aby Warburg

Palazzo Schifanoia displays archive material from the Warburg Institute to commemorate her work

Looted artarchive

Florentine seizure of war-theft paintings on loan from New Zealand

It is alleged that they were stolen from the collection of Cino Vitta, head of the Jewish community in Florence during the war

Featuresarchive

The tensions in copyright law between the rights of artist, public and trade

We asked a number of lawyers to comment on the situation with regard to catalogues in their own jurisdictions, and found that the scope of protection varies widely

Unescoarchive

Ten out of forty-six new World Heritage sites confirmed in Italy alone due to the Piedmont’s latest emphasis on culture and tourism

Out of the ten newly designated Unesco sites, the biggest includes eighteen royal Savoy properties

Booksarchive

Furniture in the Palazzo Pitti, table tops take the palm

The second of the four volume series on the furniture of the Pitti Palace makes its debut

Auctionsarchive

State intervention on humanist manuscripts in Feltrinelli Library sale at Christie's

Top lots go to private collectors, but the Italian State and European dealers put up a fight

Sargent’s summer holidays warm up NYC in new show on his travels abroad

The Adelson Galleries explores Sargent's sketches and watercolours from his many journeys

Art marketarchive

Changes to Italy's import-export regulations

An art dealer reads the small-print of a new Italian government regulation that enables its officials to “notify” works even when on temporary importation

Romearchive

In 1993 Rome’s town council began preparing for the Millennium. The debate has been over how much to alter Mussolini’s propagandistic exploitation of imperial remains

The priject to execavate the imperial fora of Augustus, Vespasian, Nerva and Trajan has been described as “every archaeologist’s dream”

Italyarchive

New exhibition explores Italian post-war design

Barry Friedman shows Italian high style

Venice archive

Drilling will make Venice sink twelve inches, warn experts

This month Italian government reaches decision on national oil company’s plan to extract gas from Adriatic

Ronald Lauder gives looted shield back to Italy

Artifact had been missing from Bologna since 1940

The Greeks on display in Venice and hidden war booty at the Hermitage

Palazzo Grassi's “Greeks in the West” exhibition is pulling in the visitors

Looted artarchive

Daniel Wildenstein in fight to recover a Boldini stolen by the Nazis

Would Italian law allow this picture to revert to the original owner?

Lost Italian art: Search goes on for masterpieces which went missing in WWII

We publish here for the first time in English a sample of the huge quantity of works of art removed from Italy during the war. One brave man, Rodolfo Siviero, devoted years to tracking them down, but many are still missing. Can you help?

Venice PLC

A company owned 51% by the town council and 49% by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux

The point of no return - Europe climbs on the restitution bandwagon

But the process has stalled as far as large-scale restitution between Russia and Germany is concerned

Collectorsarchive

Subject over style for Italian collectors, as photography continues to be commodity of choice

Works of illustration and Italian genre photography have been market favourites since the seventies

Newsarchive

Painting captured in police sting is by Raphael, says leading expert

The owner's careless sales technique led the carabinieri right to his doorstep

Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel frescoes to be restored

The solution will involve low-tech improvements to the surroundings