Two Pietro Lorenzetti make their debut at the Louvre

7/3/24 - Acquisition - Paris, Musée du Louvre - Although announced at the end of November, the rediscovery of two previously unseen panels by Pietro Lorenzetti (ill. 1 and 2) by the Tajan auction house and the experts at Turquin immediately raised the hopes of many lovers of Italian painting, who immediately began to see it as an ideal Christmas present for the Musée du Louvre. It has to be said that the Sienese artist is as important as he is rare in museums as he is on the market - only around thirty works are known to exist - and the appearance of these two paintings in a public sale was a welcome surprise. Although there has never been any debate over their attribution, the identification of these saintly figures remains clearly controversial, since they were proposed as Saint Sylvester and Saint Helena, whereas the eminent Italian specialist Andrea De Marchi saw instead Saint Zechariah and Saint Elizabeth, as he explained to La Gazette Drouot where Carole Blumenfeld recounted - ten days before the sale - these initial hesitations.

1. Pietro Lorenzetti (c. 1240-c. 1348)
Saint Zechariah
Tempera and gold on panel - 70 x 36.5 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: Tajan

See the image in its page

2. Pietro Lorenzetti (c. 1240-c. 1348)
Saint Elizabeth
Tempera and gold on panel - 69.8 x 37 cm
Paris, Musée du Louvre
Photo: Tajan

See the image in its page

The two unpublished panels were in fact sold at Tajan in Paris on 13 December, which required, to say the least, a great deal of flexibility on the part of both connoisseurs and interested institutions, while their state of conservation could indeed give rise to legitimate concerns and justified, at least it seemed, selling them in two lots: estimated at €1,500,000/2,000,000, the first was sold for €3,034,800 including fees, while the second, estimated at €400,000/600,000, subsequently fetched €1,657,600 including fees. No representative of the French State stepped forward to…