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Texas Museum becomes the only USA museum to own a michelanglo painting
FORT WORTH – In an extraordinary coup, the Kimbell Art Museum has acquired the earliest known painting by Michelangelo, one of only four easel paintings by the Renaissance master in the world.
The Kimbell's purchase, The Torment of Saint Anthony (1487-88), will be the only painting by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) to enter the permanent collection of a U.S. museum. Two of the other paintings are in London's National Gallery, and a third is in Florence's Uffizi Gallery.
The opportunity to buy the work, for an undisclosed sum, came just weeks after the arrival of newly appointed Kimbell director Eric McCauley Lee earlier this year. He was having lunch one day with former Kimbell director Edmund "Ted" Pillsbury, who had heard about the painting, which was being studied in the conservation studios at the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
Who actually painted it was an issue. "I did not know anything about it," Lee admitted. "It sounds ludicrous when you first hear it – a painting by Michelangelo? How is it possible when there are so few? A drawing is more likely and in the realm of possibility, but a painting?"
Lee trekked to New York to see the painting and meet with curators at the Met.
"We brought the painting here to Fort Worth and examined it further. Our only conclusion was it was painted by Michelangelo. It is a powerful painting and an extraordinary opportunity to have the only painting in North America by his hand," he said.
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Beating out the met
After years of yellowed varnish and dark overpainting were removed, the curators and conservation staff at the Met were in agreement: This was the missing painting by Michelangelo. However, in the months since the auction, the international economic situation had deteriorated.
The Met was unable to purchase the painting. When the Met pulled out, it became the Kimbell's good fortune.
The Kimbell refuses to reveal what it paid, and no one in art circles is willing to put a price on a Michelangelo painting. Sotheby's won't guess what the Kimbell paid. It offers up its 2002 sale of a Peter Paul Rubens work, The Massacre of the Innocents, for $69 million as comparable, although rarity wasn't a factor as eight Rubens paintings sold at auction in 2002.
What most experts say is there's no Michelangelo precedent. "Priceless" is the consensus. But apparently there is a price for priceless. "We were able to afford it," says Lee, whose institution estimated that it had an endowment of $350 million in February.
The painting will go on exhibit at the Met this summer, then come home to Fort Worth. "This way it recognizes the Met for its contributions," Lee says.
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The Kimbell's purchase, The Torment of Saint Anthony (1487-88), will be the only painting by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) to enter the permanent collection of a U.S. museum. Two of the other paintings are in London's National Gallery, and a third is in Florence's Uffizi Gallery.
The opportunity to buy the work, for an undisclosed sum, came just weeks after the arrival of newly appointed Kimbell director Eric McCauley Lee earlier this year. He was having lunch one day with former Kimbell director Edmund "Ted" Pillsbury, who had heard about the painting, which was being studied in the conservation studios at the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
Who actually painted it was an issue. "I did not know anything about it," Lee admitted. "It sounds ludicrous when you first hear it – a painting by Michelangelo? How is it possible when there are so few? A drawing is more likely and in the realm of possibility, but a painting?"
Lee trekked to New York to see the painting and meet with curators at the Met.
"We brought the painting here to Fort Worth and examined it further. Our only conclusion was it was painted by Michelangelo. It is a powerful painting and an extraordinary opportunity to have the only painting in North America by his hand," he said.
.................
Beating out the met
After years of yellowed varnish and dark overpainting were removed, the curators and conservation staff at the Met were in agreement: This was the missing painting by Michelangelo. However, in the months since the auction, the international economic situation had deteriorated.
The Met was unable to purchase the painting. When the Met pulled out, it became the Kimbell's good fortune.
The Kimbell refuses to reveal what it paid, and no one in art circles is willing to put a price on a Michelangelo painting. Sotheby's won't guess what the Kimbell paid. It offers up its 2002 sale of a Peter Paul Rubens work, The Massacre of the Innocents, for $69 million as comparable, although rarity wasn't a factor as eight Rubens paintings sold at auction in 2002.
What most experts say is there's no Michelangelo precedent. "Priceless" is the consensus. But apparently there is a price for priceless. "We were able to afford it," says Lee, whose institution estimated that it had an endowment of $350 million in February.
The painting will go on exhibit at the Met this summer, then come home to Fort Worth. "This way it recognizes the Met for its contributions," Lee says.
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