The return of an important copy after a painting by Leonardo da Vinci to Florence is being hailed by most as a triumph, though by one critic as a scam.
Outspoken critic Vittorio Sgarbi is probably amongst the minority of those who believe the famous Tavola Doria is a ‘piece of junk from the Porta Portese [market].’ Director of the Uffizi Gallery Antonio Natali refuses to comment. The Uffizi has opened a temporary exhibit dedicated to the work, currently on loan from Tokyo’s Fuji Art Museum and scheduled to enter the permanent collection in a few years’ time.
The Tavola Doria is believed to be the closest extant copy, by a contemporary Florentine, of the famous lost fresco by Leonardo da Vinci that scientists were recently searching for under a wall built by Vasari in the Salone dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio (see theflr.net/5a0y19). It was owned by the Doria family of Genoa until sometime around World War II, at which time it went missing; it later showed up in Japan, having been illegally exported. The Comando Carabinieri Tutela Patrimonio Culturale has negotiated its return to Italy.
The work has been carefully restored and placed in a glass case, and is on display in the Uffizi’s Sala delle Carte Geografiche in a show called Memorie di capolavori di Leonardo until June 29, 2014. Three other copies of works by Leonardo accompany it.
For more information, see theflr.net/polomuseale.
