US authorities seizing painting from Fla. museum

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NAZI_PAINTING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-11-04-12-44-10

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- U.S. authorities are seizing a more than 400-year-old Italian painting that has been on display at a Florida museum, saying it was stolen by the Nazis from a Jewish family during World War II and should be returned to the family's heirs.

U.S. Attorney Pamela Marsh announced Friday that the federal government will hold onto the painting until a federal judge can determine the rightful owners.

The Baroque painting was one of 50 lent to the Mary Brogan Museum of Art & Science in Tallahassee by a Milan museum for an exhibit that closed earlier this year. Federal authorities were planning to take the painting off the walls shortly after noon on Friday.

The painting, "Christ Carrying the Cross Dragged by a Rogue" by Girolamo Romano, came from the Pinacoteca di Brera museum in Milan. The painting is believed to date to around 1538 and it was purchased by Gentili di Giuseppe in 1914 during an auction in Paris. He died in 1940 shortly after the Nazis occupied France.

[closeupready]

1. Gorgeous painting.

Though I'm not sure that Christ would have been wearing satin, but who cares. :D

[xchrom]

2. i love baroque painting.. and yes they were generous w/ their interpretations.

the very definition of Vivid Imagination.

[GKirk]

4. I go for Baroque too n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. Wow!! How did that artist capture all that light and shine so well??

[closeupready]

5. Hard to believe it's about 500 years old, huh?

If you ever get a chance, visit the Louvre or the British Museum for tons of beautiful old stuff. :)

[GreenPartyVoter]

6. Wish I could, but I don't see a trip to Europe in my lifetime. (I was in Paris in high school, but

did we visit the Musee d'Orsay? or the L'Ouvre? No. We went to the Centre Pompidou and saw a whole lot of modern art, which is not really my thing. I did laugh at the spitting lips fountain, tho.)