Italy. New episode in the tax scandal and family war which is making headlines in Italy. This is the fortune of Marella Caracciolo, the widow of Gianni Agnelli (1921-2003), the emblematic boss of what was Fiat nicknamed “the Avvocato”. She left to her grandchildren John, Lapo and Ginevra Elkann most of the heritage inherited from her husband who died in 2003. A heritage which obviously includes an artistic component. Giovanni Agnelli and his wife were at the origin of one of the largest Italian private collections, estimated at more than a billion euros for all of the nearly 700 works listed.
It does not make the front page of the culture pages of the transalpine press but of its legal column under the title “The mystery of the 13 paintings”. The Rome public prosecutor’s office has in fact opened an investigation entrusted to the carabinieri of the Nucleo Tutela Patrimonio Artistico (Unit for the Protection of Artistic Heritage), relating to accusations of illicit export of works of art and receiving stolen goods.
The disappearance was reported by Margherita Agnelli, the daughter of “L’Avvocato”, in her contestation of the inheritance of her three children, considering herself wronged. John, Lapo and Ginevra Elkann maintain that these works were given to them by Marella Caracciolo and therefore are not part of their grandfather’s estate. These are master paintings, including Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon and John Singer Sargent, which left the family’s villas and residences while others were replaced by copies: The scale of the addii by Giacomo Balla (valued at 2 million euros), Mister and melanconia on a road by Giorgio De Chirico (valued at 7 million euros) Icicles, white effect by Claude Monet (valued at 4 million euros) (see ill.).
Investigators are currently gathering evidence such as transport invoices, archive photographs which could show different details between the original paintings and those present in the estate inventories or even testimonies from employees and former collaborators of the Agnelli family. Justice will then have to establish the precise route of these works, suspecting that they were illegally transferred abroad without the essential authorization from the Italian Ministry of Culture.
