Cimabue found in kitchen, French government blocks export: wants to buy it for Louvre

France’s culture minister, Franck Riester, has decided to block the export of the Christ Mocked attributed to Cimabue (Florence, c. 1240 - Pisa, 1302), the work that made headlines a few weeks ago when it was found in the kitchen of an elderly woman in Compiègne, a town in Picardy (northern France). The work had then been sold at auction by Actéon for the sum of 24.1 million euros, and the Italian antiquarian Fabrizio Moretti had finalized the purchase on behalf of the family that owns the famous Alana collection (United States). The Christ Mocked, believed to be part of the 1280 diptych of which the Flagellation from the Frick Collection in New York and the Madonna and Child Enthroned from the National Gallery in London are part, will therefore not be allowed to leave French borders.

France’s Ministry of Culture has therefore signed the measure sanctioning the export freeze, a measure that cancels the previously issued export certificate, and has given the work the status of a national treasure (a sort of equivalent of our declaration of high cultural interest) for a period of thirty months, which will begin upon notification of the decision to the work’s owner. This timeframe will be used by France to raise the necessary funds to purchase the Mocked Christ: if the deal goes through, Cimabue’s work will become part of France’s national public collections, allowing the panel to join the Florentine painter’s Majesty already in the Louvre Museum.

“I greet positively,” said Riester, “the important role played by the mechanism for controlling the export of cultural property, aimed at protecting and enriching the national heritage, and I thank the members of the Advisory Commission on National Treasures, under the impetus of its chairman, Edmond Honorat, whose careful examination of the proposed denial of the certificate clarifies my decision. Thanks to the time allowed by this measure, all efforts can be made so that this exceptional work can enrich the national collections.”

Cimabue found in kitchen, French government blocks export: wants to buy it for Louvre

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