Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Shop Featured: Rhombicuboctahedron by Leonardo da Vinci

Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino[1] is a landscape by British artist J. M. W. Turner completed in 1839. It is Turner's final painting of Rome and has been in the possession of the family of the 5th Earl of Rosebery since 1878. The painting came to auction on 7 July 2010.

Background

Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino is a landscape vision of the unexcavated Roman Forum, still called the Campo Vaccino, the "Cow Pasture", shimmering in hazy light and is the last of Turner's twenty-year series of views of the city.

It was first purchased by Hugh Munro, a friend and patron of Turner, from a Royal Academy exhibition in 1839. The painting has only appeared on the open market once in the 171 years since it was painted and was purchased for 4,450 guineas by the 5th Earl of Rosebery and his wife, Hannah Rothschild on their honeymoon in 1878. It was hung in the family's country home, Mentmore Towers and in their London residences for a century. In 1978, the painting, which has remained in the family, was loaned to the National Gallery of Scotland.

2010 auction

In March 2010, it was announced that the painting would come to auction on 7 July 2010. Sotheby's auction house said the painting was being sold by a descendant of the 5th Earl of Rosebery to help secure the future of estates. It went on view in Sotheby's New York auction house from 29 April to 14 May, before returning to London for the auction. The painting, which is in immaculate condition, has been described by Sotheby's as "undoubtedly among the most important of Turner's works ever to come to auction".

It was announced that if the work is sold to a collector who wishes to take it out of Britain, they would have to apply for an export license as part of the national cultural heritage. A temporary export ban would have offered the National Galleries of Scotland time to raise equivalent money to save the painting for a public collection. However, this would not happen if it was sold to a private collector in the UK.

On 7 July 2010, the painting was sold at auction for a record £29.7 million. It was purchased in the room by the dealer, Hazlitt Gooden and Fox who were acting on behalf of the Getty Museum. The price became the highest paid for a Turner work.