The Boston Raphael: A Mysterious Painting, an Embattled Museum in an Era of Change, and a Daughter's Search for the Truth

Rathbone, Belinda

ISBN 10: 1567925227 / ISBN 13: 9781567925227

Published by David R. Godine Publisher, Boston, 2014

About this Item

335 pages, [16] pages of plates, illustrations (some colour); 24 cm. PRESENTATION COPY. Signed by the author, with a personalized inscription. A fine copy. Dust jacket protected in a mylar cover. *** "The riveting story of a museum director caught in a web of local and international intrigue while secretly pursuing a forgotten Renaissance painting-the Boston Raphael. On the eve of its centennial celebrations in December, 1969, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts announced the acquisition of an unknown and uncatalogued painting attributed to Raphael. Boston's coup made headlines around the world. Soon afterward, an Italian art sleuth began investigating the details of the painting's export from Italy, challenging the museum's right to ownership. Simultaneously, experts on both sides of the Atlantic lined up to debate its very authenticity. While these contests played themselves out on the international stage, the crisis deepened within the museum as its charismatic director, Perry T. Rathbone, faced the most challenging crossroads of his thirty-year career. The Boston Raphael was a media sensation in its time, but the full story of the forces that converged on the museum and how they intersected with the challenges of the Sixties is now revealed in full detail by the director's daughter. In her quest for the true story behind this pivotal event in her father's life, Belinda Rathbone digs into the background of the affair as it was reported in the popular press, both questioning the inevitability of its outcome and revealing the power struggle within the museum that led to his resignation. She draws almost entirely from primary source material in various archival collections and over a hundred contemporary and personal interviews. The book is lavishly illustrated with full-color plates and many previously unpublished photographs." - Publisher. Size: 8vo.

Seller Inventory # 098000

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Boston Raphael: A Mysterious Painting, an Embattled Museum in an Era of Change, and a Daughter's Search for the Truth
• Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher, Boston
• Publication Date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1567925227
• ISBN 13: 9781567925227
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: SIGNED
• Book Type: Collectible
• Seller catalogs:
  • USA::States::Massachusetts
  • XL: Extra Large
  • European::4. Renaissance
  • Museums
  • European::Italian
  • XXX::COLLECTIBLES

About this title

Synopsis

The full, inside story of how the discovery of a previously unknown painting by Raphael, the Italian Renaissance master, went from media sensation to career-destroying scandal.

On the eve of its centennial celebrations in December, 1969, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts announced the acquisition of an unknown and uncatalogued painting attributed to Raphael. Boston’s coup made headlines around the world. Soon afterward, an Italian art sleuth began investigating the details of the painting’s export from Italy, challenged the museum’s right to ownership. Simultaneously, experts on both sides of the Atlantic lined up to debate the artwork’s very authenticity.

While these contests played themselves out on the international stage, the crisis deepened within the museum as its charismatic director, Perry T. Rathbone, faced the most challenging crossroads of his thirty-year career. The facts about the forces that converged on the museum, and how they led to Rathbone’s resignation as director, is only now fully revealed in this compelling, behind-the-scenes story that reveals how the art world, media, and museums work. This is for anyone who relishes stories of the business of art.

About the Author

Belinda Rathbone is a biographer and historian who has written widely on 20th-century American art and photography. In addition to The Boston Raphael, she is the author of Walker Evans: A Biography, George Rickey: A Life in Balance, a memoir, The Guynd, and edited the forthcoming, In the Company of Art: A Museum Director's Private Journals by Perry T. Rathbone.