Manhattan's Metropolitan Museum had raised a shout of joy last January over its purchase of a 15th Century painting of Saint Sebastian. Attributed to Andrea del Castagno, and authenticated by Renaissance Expert Bernard Berenson, it was one of the best pictures the museum had acquired in years.
Last week the Metropolitan's joy was raising a sorrowful echo in Rome. Sebastian, it appeared, had belonged to the family of a Fascist nobleman, Count Francesco de Larderel, who fled Florence ahead of the liberation. Charging that the picture had been illegally smuggled out of Italy, the Italian government asked the U.S. State Department's...
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