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Recently-reunited furniture friends now face loss overseas

035/08
08 April 2008

A spectacular seventeenth-century Roman Baroque cabinet, recently reunited with its long lost stand after it was discovered in a York pizza restaurant following a 20 year search, is now at risk of being taken out of the country.

Culture Minister, Margaret Hodge, has placed a temporary export bar on the cabinet and stand, providing a last chance to raise the money to retain this magnificent ensemble in the United Kingdom. 

The Minister’s ruling follows a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, administered by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. The Committee recommended that the export decision be deferred on the grounds that the cabinet and stand are of outstanding aesthetic importance and of outstanding significance for the study of the history of furniture.

The monumental Baroque cabinet, possibly made as a gift from the Pope to a crowned head, is veneered in ebony with lapis lazuli and jasper panels and decorated with fourteen miniatures of Roman monuments. It belongs to a unique set of four matching cabinets, two in Copenhagen since 1767, and one in Cracow. The carved and gilt stand, supplied later, is a sumptuous masterpiece of Roman decorative sculpture

The recent history of the cabinet and stand is almost as unusual as the items themselves. The top and bottom were only recently reunited by chance. The cabinet had been in store for 20 years and the stand, which had been assumed to have been lost or destroyed was in a pizza restaurant in York when it was recognised by an expert.
 
Simon Jervis, Reviewing Committee member, said: “This magnificent ensemble, fit for the grandest Roman palace, is a remarkable discovery and deserves a starring role in a major museum”.

The decision on the export licence application for the Cabinet and Stand will be deferred for a period ending on 7 June 2008 inclusive. This period may be extended until 7 October 2008 inclusive if a serious intention to raise funds with a view to making an offer to purchase the cabinet and stand at the recommended price of £1,108,037.50 (including VAT) is expressed.

Anyone interested in making an offer to purchase the cabinet should contact the owner’s agent through:
 
The Secretary
The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council,
Victoria House,
Southampton Row
London WC1B 4EA

Notes for editors

  1. Media enquiries on the operation of and casework arising from the work of the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest (RCEWA) should be directed to Communications Manager, John Harrison, on 020 7273 1402, email: john.harrison@mla.gov.uk.

  2. The Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest is an independent body, serviced by MLA, which advises the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on whether a cultural object, intended for export, is of national importance under specified criteria. Where the Committee finds that an object meets one or more of the criteria, it will normally recommend that the decision on the export licence application should be deferred for a specified period. An offer may then be made from within the United Kingdom at or above the fair market price.

  3. Pictures of this item are available. Please email john.harrison@mla.gov.uk (MLA no longer subscribes to the PixMedia website service).

  4. Further details about the cabinet and stand can be found in the auction catalogue at Sotheby’s website. The sale L07311 of Important Continental Furniture was on 4 December 2007, Lot 60.

  5. The cabinet is mounted with lapis lazuli and jasper and decorated with fourteen miniatures of important Roman buildings beneath a nocturnal clock.  The central door features a painting depicting St Peter’s Square and opens to reveal a mirrored architectural interior. The bottom drawer conceals a small keyboard instrument (virginals) signed and dated 1676. 
    The cabinet has been identified as one of four described as being taken from the workshops of Giacomo Herman to Palazzo del Quirinale to be inspected by the cardinal nipote Giacomo Rospigliosi (and possibly his uncle Pope Clement lX) on 20 November 1669.

  6. The other three versions survive: two in the Danish Royal Collection and a third installed as an altarpiece in the Church of the Capuchins in Cracow.

  7. The purpose behind Herman’s visit to the Cardinal with his cabinets is not known. It has been suggested that either the Cardinal or the Pope intended to buy them, possibly for their own use or, more likely, as future diplomatic presents for crowned heads.

  8. At some date in the early eighteenth century three of the cabinets, presumably still together as a group in Rome, were given their elaborately carved and gilded stands, which probably replaced earlier ones of ebony.

  9. The story of how the cabinet and stand came to England and re-surfaced in Sunderland and York in the 1950s is unresolved.

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