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

by Belinda Rathbone

Overview

The discovery of a previously unknown painting by an Italian Renaissance master, and how it went from media sensation to career-ending 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.

Praise for The Boston Raphael

“Perhaps the most exciting book on the art world since Jonathan Harr’s The Lost Painting.” ―The Boston Globe

“In the compelling story of her father, Perry Rathbone, and the years when he was the elegant and revolutionary director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Belinda Rathbone evokes our country’s most glamorous years . . .  The Boston Raphael is a combination of personal memoir and rich, deliciously detailed history that will keep you turning the pages.” ―Susan Cheever

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781567925401
Publisher:	David R. Godine, Publisher
Publication date:	12/18/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	316
Sales rank:	325,480
File size:	16 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Belinda Rathbone is a biographer and historian who has written widely on 20th-century American photography. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Walker Evans: A Biography, as well as important essays on the work of Paul Strand, Alfred Stieglitz, and many contemporary artists and photographers. Ms. Rathbone’s books with Godine include the memoir, The Guynd: Love & Other Repairs in Rural Scotland .

Table of Contents

Part I

The Greatest Adventure of All 11

1965 29

The Making of a Museum Director 45

The Centennial Looms 65

The Changing Face of the Board 81

PTR's Other Hat 95

The Man behind the Man 116

Part II

The Prize 137

Rodolfo Siviero, Art Sleuth 154

But Is It Really a Raphael? 173

Seizure 186

The Return of the Raphael 207

Christie's 231

The Big Picture 251

Acknowledgments 271

Bibliography 277

Notes 279

Appendix: Perry T. Rathbone to John Coolidge 307

Illustration Credits 317

Index 325

Editorial Reviews

09/15/2014
In this fascinating book about a watershed moment in the culture of America’s art museums, Rathbone (Walker Evans) considers her father Perry Rathbone’s directorship at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA). A connoisseur and showman who believed that “art is for everyone,” Rathbone’s influence as director was felt distinctly in the MFA from 1955 until 1972, when he was forced by the museum’s board of trustees to resign. That decision was triggered by the controversy surrounding a tiny oil painting of a small girl, believed to be an unknown Raphael. For the occasion of MFA’s centennial in 1970, Rathbone covertly purchased the painting for $600,000 from a shady dealer in Genoa. Eluding Italy’s artistic patrimony law, the painting was smuggled into the U.S. Set against the backdrop of this intrigue are Rathbone’s descriptions of life at MFA in the postwar years. She chronicles the celebration of its centennial, from the exhibitions that were installed to the infighting among staff and the attempts to woo collectors. Her father represents the old breed of museum directors, arbiters who behaved as “public servants” rather than “CEOs of a considerable corporate enterprise.” Her book sheds light on museology of the present as well as of the past. Agent: Ike Williams, Kneerim, Williams & Bloom. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Boston Raphael

“Perhaps the most exciting book on the art world since Jonathan Harr’s The Lost Painting.”—The Boston Globe

“In the compelling story of her father, Perry Rathbone, and the years when he was the elegant and revolutionary director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Belinda Rathbone evokes our country’s most glamorous years… The Boston Raphael is a combination of personal memoir and rich, deliciously detailed history that will keep you turning the pages.”—Susan Cheever

“In this fascinating book about a watershed moment in the culture of America’s art museums, Rathbone (Walker Evans) considers her father Perry Rathbone’s directorship at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) . . . [Rathbone’s] book sheds light on museology of the present as well as of the past.”—Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher