Page 21 - Vision & Ecstasy - Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione's St. Francis.

later became a good friend, had been ‘nobbled’ by a Florentine
dealer who also wanted to buy the painting and who in
consequence had induced the restorer to give a less than accurate
appraisal of the painting’s condition. My sponsors balked at the
purchase but I insisted and bought the painting for the then
colossal sum of $600,000 in 1986.An ugly scene then ensued.At
the basis of this was jealousy over the kudos that had accrued to
the Matthiesen Gallery name as a result of the exhibitions I had
mounted and the paintings I had sold. Since my sponsors knew
that I was financially a stripling they exercised leverage to try and
wrest control of the Matthiesen Gallery name from me. I refused
categorically whereupon they refused to pay for the Gentile and
in addition informed my bankers that my guarantees were
withdrawn. Shortly after I was summoned to the bank in St
James’s Square with whom I had good relations.These were more
civilised years when one actually had a relationship with a bank
and took coffee with the directors. After some discussion I had
them agree that no guarantee could be pulled outright and that I
should be granted six months to repay my overdraft. The
consequence of this was that I was forced to syndicate the
purchase three ways as I could not hope to pay off the purchase
sum on my own.There ensued a frantic search for a client once
the painting had been cleaned and authenticated as the original Fig. 14.
version (theVatican’s being a studio copy).The painting was of such jewel-like beauty that I had little difficulty
in persuading Basia to purchase it and once authenticated I achieved a multiple of the purchase price in 1988.
A number of years later the Gallery repurchased the painting and then resold it to a European collector.

Two events served to save the gallery in its moment of crisis in 1986 and both were due to Basia.The first was
the discovery of a Caravaggio St Francis believed to be based on a representation of Cardinal del Monte.15 (Fig.14)

15. The painting had been identified by Ferdinando Bologna and the attribution confirmed by the doyen of Caravaggio studies at
the time, Sir Denis Mahon. Later Keith Christiansen has proposed an attribution to Orazio Gentileschi.

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