Christie’s pulled from its old masters auction this week a painting by El Greco that the Romanian government says is part of its national art collection but was removed from the country in 1947. That year, the country’s last king, Michael I, went into exile after being forced from power by Communist forces.
The painting, “Saint Sebastian,” depicting the body of its subject pierced by arrows, was created in the early 1600s and was estimated by Christie’s to fetch $7 million to $9 million at auction.
It now joins decades of legal battles waged by Romanian government officials who have said Michael removed cultural patrimony in the form of dozens of valuable paintings when he was forced to abdicate after World War II. The government regards the paintings as state property, not the former king’s personal possessions.
Christie’s said in its catalog that the work was transferred to Michael in 1947 “with the accord” of the Romanian government.
“Christie’s takes these matters seriously and out of an abundance of caution is withdrawing the lot at this time,” the auction house said in a statement. “We look forward to selling this unique and spectacular work at a later date.”
News of the painting’s withdrawal was earlier reported by Romania Journal. In response to questions, an official at the Romanian Embassy in Washington pointed to a statement that the country’s prime minister, Marcel Ciolacu, had posted on Facebook in Romanian.
Ciolacu said Romania was pursuing the recovery of the El Greco, which was scheduled for an auction in New York, through litigation in Paris. The painting was “of inestimable value” and “unequivocally the property of the Romanian state,” he wrote.
“After decades, it’s time for this irreplaceable painting to return to where it belongs, to the national art collection and to the Romanian people,” he added.
According to the Christie’s catalog, “Saint Sebastian” was possibly in El Greco’s studio in Toledo, Spain, at the time of his death in 1614. The provenance said it was then in possession of the artist’s son before being acquired by King Carol I of Romania, probably by 1898.
The following year, the provenance said, Carol I bequeathed the work to the institution of the Romanian Crown, which received the painting after the king’s death in 1914 and held on to it until 1947. That year, according to the provenance, the Romanian government allowed possession of the painting to transfer to Michael, who had ascended to the throne at the age of 18 amid the chaos of World War II.
Michael altered history in 1944, at 22, when he arrested Ion Antonescu, the fascist dictator of Romania and an ally of Hitler’s. Antonescu was then locked in a vault where Michael’s father, King Carol II, who was forced into abdication by General Antonescu in 1940, had once kept the royal stamp collection.
Soon afterward, Michael renounced Romania’s connection to the Axis powers and turned Romanian divisions against the Nazis, inflicting severe losses. Some historians believe that those actions helped shorten the war and saved tens of thousands of lives.
By 1947, however, Communists tied to Stalin controlled Romania. Michael said the country’s prime minister, Petru Groza, threatened to execute 1,000 imprisoned students if he did not give up the throne.
On Dec. 30, 1947, Michael left Romania via train with more than 30 family members and friends, issuing a decree that said the monarchy was an obstacle to the country’s future. While in exile, Michael and his wife, Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma, lived mainly in Geneva.
The Romanian government eventually came to believe that six weeks before he abdicated, Michael removed 40 paintings from the country on a trip on the Orient Express to attend the wedding in Britain of his cousin Philip to Princess Elizabeth, the future queen. He deposited some at a Swiss bank and left others in Florence, the lawyers for the government maintained.
Michael sold “Saint Sebastian” in 1976, according to the Christie’s provenance, and the painting was acquired by its present unnamed owner in 2010 through the art dealers Giraud Pissarro Segalot.
By that time Romanian officials had already begun efforts to obtain works they said Michael had taken.
In 1985, the country’s Communist regime filed a lawsuit against the art dealers Wildenstein & Co. in Federal District Court in Manhattan seeking two El Greco paintings that it said were sold by Michael through the gallery. That case was dismissed when Romania did not comply with discovery orders from the court.
A successor government sued Michael in State Supreme Court in Manhattan in 1993, asking for the return of works by El Greco, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Breughel and others. That suit, too, was dismissed.
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