A 16th-century painting stolen from an Italian museum more than half a century ago has resurfaced—not in a grand gallery or a private collection, but at the center of a bitter dispute between an English widow and a small-town museum in northern Italy.
The work in question, Madonna and Child by Antonio Solario, was stolen in 1973 from the civic museum in Belluno, a picturesque town in the Dolomites. Some years later, it found its way to the English countryside, purchased by the late Baron de Dozsa and housed in his Tudor manor. The painting remains in the possession of Barbara de Dozsa, the late Baron’s former wife, despite being listed in Interpol’s database of stolen artworks, the Associated Press reported Tuesday.
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Christopher Marinello, a lawyer specializing in art restitution, has vowed to see the painting returned to Italy. His firm, Art Recovery International, has helped reclaim works by the likes of Henri Matisse and Henry Moore. But this case has proved particularly frustrating.
“I have a family connection to this region, and I decided I was going to stick my two cents in and interfere,” Marinello told the AP.
His interference has, so far, led nowhere. De Dozsa, he says, has refused to release the painting, despite admitting that she “never really liked it” and doesn’t hang the picture because “it reminds her of her ex-husband.”
The saga took a further twist when the painting’s status was flagged after de Dozsa attempted to sell it at auction. The sale was halted, and Norfolk Constabulary, the local police force, was called in. Yet instead of confiscating the work, British authorities returned it to de Dozsa. Norfolk police told the AP that because Italian authorities had not pursued the case in years, judicial guidance advised against further action.
For Belluno, the painting’s value extends far beyond its estimated price—the record for a Solario at auction was made back in 2007 at Sotheby’s in Milan, just over $100,000 for a Madonna and child picture. A different Madonna and child picture failed to sell at Christie’s Old Masters II sale in 2023. Solario was a Renaissance artist who worked in Naples and Venice. For Belluno’s residents, the Madonna and Child represents a piece of their cultural heritage.
The widow, the lawyer, and the town remain at an impasse. Whether the painting will ever return to Belluno, or remain in exile in England, hinges on Marinello’s legal campaign.