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First Lavinia Fontana for San Francisco
31/05/24 - Acquisition - San Francisco, Fine Arts Museums - Following in the footsteps of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (see the news item of 7/3/21), the National Gallery in Washington and the Getty Museum (see the news item of 31/8/22), the Fine Arts Museums in San Francisco have added the first work by Lavinia Fontana to their collections as part of their centenary celebrations. Acquired from the Ben Elwes Fine Art gallery in London [1], this large portrait took its place at the beginning of May in the Renaissance galleries of the Legion of Honor, alongside masterpieces by El Greco, Titian, Moroni and Bronzino. With the exception of its appearance on the New York art market in January 2012, when it fetched €384.200 at Sotheby’s, the painting, which has remained in private hands for…