Italian Renaissance sculptures rediscovered in the Pushkin Museum
Fifty-nine Italian Renaissance sculptures missing from Berlin’s collections since the Second World War have been found in Moscow’s Pushkin Museum. They include works by Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Andrea Verrocchio, Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, Francesco Laurana, and Mino da Fiesole.
The sculptures were among the Berlin art treasures stored in a flak tower in Berlin to protect them from bombs during the war. After two fires ravaged the structure, the works were presumed destroyed, including Caravaggio’s St. Matthew. Whatever was left was seized by the Soviet army and transported to Moscow.
Art historian Neville Rowley, part of the team who made the discovery and curator of Italian Renaissance art at the Bode Museum, says that most of the sculptures are damaged and need restoration. Hence, they can’t currently be shown, but there are plans to exhibit them at the Pushkin Museum in the future.
Source: The Art Newspaper
Mino da Fiesole, Portrait of a Young Woman (around 1472, state before 1945). © Archiv SBM. Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Preußischer Kulturbesitz. Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst.
Posted by Martina Bollini