31/3/23 - Claim - Brando - The Madonna of Brando, named after the Corsican town where it was kept until 1839 (see news item of 28/3/23), was finally not sold at auction this afternoon: the French Ministry of Culture, at the request of the commune and the collectivity of Corsica, has indeed claimed the public ownership of the work.
We have not managed (it is Friday evening) to obtain any information from the Ministry of Culture, nor from the Corsican local authority, but we have been able to speak with the mayor of Brando, Patrick Sanguinetti, and with the auctioneer Etienne De Baecque.
-
- Simone da Firenze and Rocco (Rocho) di Bartolomeo (active around 1500)
The Virgin on a Throne Holding the Child, Surrounded by Four
Musician Angels known as Madonna of Brando
Panel - 198 x 94.8 cm
Painting claimed by the city of Brando
Photo: De Baecque et Associés - See the image in its page
For the former, the painting, confiscated from the convent of San Francescu during the Revolution and then assigned to the municipality, is part of its public domain and therefore could not be sold by virtue of the principle of inalienability. The mayor of the time, according to the mayor of today, was aware of the sale by the parish priest to Albin Chalandon (in 1839), someone had denounced this operation and it had made a lot of noise, the affair having gone up to the prefect and the minister. We have not been able to consult the archives nor have we been informed of their exact content, so we do not know more.
-
- 2. Madonna of Brando exhibited yesterday at Drouot
Photo: Didier Rykner - See the image in its page
For Étienne de Baecque, whose catalogue with its long note testifies that the work and its provenance were studied in depth (it was presented by the Turquin cabinet), there is no doubt: since it was an item from a suppressed church, it entered the private domain of the State, which returned it to the fabrique, which had the right to sell it at the time. Although he acknowledged that the sale had not followed the procedure, he nevertheless stressed that it had been validated by the prefect and the Minister of the Interior, and that, since it was a private property, the infringement was in any case prescribed.
-
- 3. Simone da Firenze and Rocco (Rocho) di Bartolomeo (active around 1500)
The Virgin on a Throne Holding the Child, Surrounded by Four
Musician Angels known as Madonna of Brando (detail)
Panel - 198 x 94.8 cm
Painting claimed by the city of Brando
Photo: De Baecque et Associés - See the image in its page
So the question is simple: was it the public domain or the private domain at the time? If it was the private domain, as the auctioneer asserts, it is indisputable that the sale, even if carried out under conditions that were not regular at the time, would be time-barred. If it was in the public domain, and despite the error of the State in accepting the sale (a point we have not been able to verify), the painting would still be the property of the commune. In the latter case, Maître De Baecque explains that compensation for the owner, obviously in good faith, is necessary, for an amount equivalent to the sale at the time, which he claims would be equivalent to the price it could have reached on sale...
Even if this would seem normal to us, there is nothing to say that it is compulsory, nor of what amount it should be.
Let’s hope that all the protagonists of the affair will be able to sit around a table to discuss reasonably and avoid a long trial (which could last for years) so that this painting can return to Corsica. If it were to be returned to Brando’s commune, it would no doubt be placed in a museum, perhaps the Corsican museum in Corte, unless it was placed in one of Brando’s religious buildings. One is always surprised by the richness of Corsica’s heritage: it has on its territory no less than eleven churches and chapels that belong to the commune.