[MSN] Virgin returns to Dresden after 60 years

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Virgin returns to Dresden after 60 years

By Donald Lee | From Museums | Posted: 8.1.08

LONDON. A painting of the Virgin from the school of the Florentine artist Carlo Dolci (1616-86), once in the Old Masters Gallery of the Dresden State Art Collections and thought to have been destroyed in World War II, has been returned to display in the gallery following its discovery in a Munich flea market.

The Madonna entered the ­collection during the reign of Augustus III (1696-1733). In 1935 it was requisitioned by the Nazis to decorate an office in the Foreign Ministry building at Am Karlsbad in Berlin, that was bombed in 1944, after which the painting disappeared.

In 2003, the painting was ­discovered in a Munich flea market by a painting restorer who repaired the damaged work and in 2004 consigned it for auction at Nagel in Stuttgart.

The sale was noted by Andreas Henning, the curator at the Old Masters Gallery, who applied for the return of the painting that he recognised as the missing Dolci. After an out-of-court agreement with the restorer, the painting returned to display last month, after an absence of 60 years.

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