Louvre Reportedly Sending Masterpieces to Italy for a Steep Fee

Leonardo da Vinci, "La Belle Ferronière," Musée du Louvre

Didier Rykner, whose La Tribune de l'Art had spearheaded the unsuccessful petition against the Louvre's deal to create a satellite museum in Abu Dhabi, now reports (in English) that the Paris museum intends to send to Verona, Italy, an exhibition of some 140 works, including such masterpieces as Leonardo's "La Belle Ferronière" (above). He lists several other major paintings, and has provided me with the link to the Italian announcement of the exhibition by Studio ESSECI, which states that it will be held at Verona's Palazzo della Gran Guardia, Sept. 19 to Feb. 15.

Rykner makes the unsourced claim that "the Louvre is renting out its masterpieces for 4 million euros, a figure that is not stated explicitly in the [Italian] press release, to a private firm." He further asserts:

Everything pertaining to this exhibition is cause for scandal and reveals the extent of the policies that we have consistently denounced. How far will this perversion of a museum's mission go?"

The Studio ESSECI press release, linked above, says that the exhibition is under the auspices of the Louvre, Verona and Linea d'ombra---a firm which, according to its website, was "devised and founded in late 1996 by its General Director Marco Goldin [said to be one of those who conceived the show]....Its services consist mainly of the global management of art exhibitions, from the planning stage through to their conclusion."

I publish all this with some hesitation, because, like Rykner, I have not been able to get the Louvre to confirm or deny the details (although not from lack of trying).