Smuggling the Renaissance: The Illicit Export of Artworks Out of Italy, 1861-1909 explores the phenomenon of art spoliation in Italy following Unification (1861), when the international demand for Italian Renaissance artworks was at an all-time high but effective art protection legislation had not yet been passed.
Making use of rich archival material Joanna Smalcerz narrates the complex and often dramatic struggle between the lawmakers of the new Italian State, and international curators (e.g., Wilhelm Bode), collectors (e.g., Isabella Stewart Gardner) and dealers (e.g., Stefano Bardini) who continuously orchestrated illicit schemes to export abroad Italian masterpieces. At the heart of the intertwinement of the art trade, art scholarship and art protection policies the author exposes the socio-psychological dynamics of unlawful collecting.
Making use of rich archival material Joanna Smalcerz narrates the complex and often dramatic struggle between the lawmakers of the new Italian State, and international curators (e.g., Wilhelm Bode), collectors (e.g., Isabella Stewart Gardner) and dealers (e.g., Stefano Bardini) who continuously orchestrated illicit schemes to export abroad Italian masterpieces. At the heart of the intertwinement of the art trade, art scholarship and art protection policies the author exposes the socio-psychological dynamics of unlawful collecting.
'(...) il volume di Joanna Smalcerz può essere considerato senz'altro un'opera di riferimento, specie per quanto attiene allo studio di quel segmento elitario del mercato del collezionismo d'arte fra le due sponde dell'Atlantico, a cavallo tra Otto e Novecento, che costituisce, in una prospettiva multidimensionale, il focus dell'analisi della studiosa polacca.'
Translation: '(...) Joanna Smalcerz's volume can certainly be considered a reference work, especially with regard to the study of the elite segment of the art market and collecting on both sides of the Atlantic at the turn of the twentieth century, which constitutes - in a multidimensional perspective - the focus of the Polish scholar's analysis.'
Marcello Moscone in Bollettino d'Arte
Translation: '(...) Joanna Smalcerz's volume can certainly be considered a reference work, especially with regard to the study of the elite segment of the art market and collecting on both sides of the Atlantic at the turn of the twentieth century, which constitutes - in a multidimensional perspective - the focus of the Polish scholar's analysis.'
Marcello Moscone in Bollettino d'Arte