Claim Resolution

Resolution: Agreement reached, museum retained work

Resolution Date: October 19, 2000

On October 19, 2000 the MFA reached an agreement with the heirs of Federico Gentili di Giuseppe for a partial purchase and partial donation of the painting Adoration of the Magi, by Corrado Giaquinto (accession number 1992.163). Recognizing that the heirs of Mr. Gentili di Giuseppe were the rightful owners of the painting, this agreement enabled the MFA to acquire the Adoration from them and keep it on display in the galleries. Its previous owner, Federico Gentili di Giuseppe, was a Jewish Italian businessman living in Paris. He died of natural causes in April of 1940, leaving his estate to his children. With the fall of France to Hitler in June of that year, his family fled the country. German law forbade the return of those who had left occupied territory, so his family was unable to assert its claim to the works of art. A surrogate administrator was appointed to manage the family's affairs and the art collection was auctioned in Paris in 1941. While the estate received the revenue from the sale, the family lost its ownership of the paintings. In 1997, Mr. Gentili di Giuseppe's heirs brought legal action against the Musée du Louvre and the State of France to have the April 1941 sale declared null and void. On June 2, 1999, the Court of Appeals of Paris nullified the sale, determining that Mr. Gentili di Giuseppe's family had been prevented from attending to the administration of the estate. Five paintings held by the Louvre were subsequently returned to the family. By February 1999 the heirs had begun pursuing individual claims regarding the other paintings in the 1941 auction and contacted the MFA about the Adoration of the Magi at that time. The MFA had purchased the painting in April 1992 from Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd., a distinguished firm of art dealers established in London in the early nineteenth century. The firm, in turn, had purchased the painting at Christie’s, Monaco, in June 1990. Because the MFA had purchased the painting before any claims were registered with the French government, the heirs affirmed that the Museum acquired the work in good faith, without knowledge that the 1941 sale was suspect.