Two paintings by Giovanni Battista Lusieri are going on sale. These paintings were displayed in Scotland last year in an exhibition of the artist’s work. Lusieri wass famous for being the artist employed by Lord Elgin to document the Parthenon Sculptures & their removal. None of those paintings survive, ass they were all destroyed when the ship carrying them was wrecked, but seeing the two pictured in this article, gives an idea of the level of detail & quality that they may have contained.

From:
Daily Telegraph

Rare watercolours by Giovanni Battista Lusieri for sale
By Martin Chilton, Culture Editor online
7:10AM GMT 15 Jan 2013

Rare watercolours by Italian artist Giovanni Battista Lusieri, the man famous for his removal of marbles from the Parthenon for Lord Elgin, go on sale in New York after Scottish National Gallery show.

Two significant watercolours by Italian painter Giovanni Battista Lusieri (1754–1821), a man renowned for his involvement in the removal and shipping of the Elgin Marbles to England, are to go on sale in New York.
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An exhibition at Gurari Collections, Boston, MA, is displaying various watercolour paintings of the Parthenon Sculptures by artist Wendy Artin.

From:
People of Shambhala

Elgin Marbles given new life in watercolor exhibition
Posted by People of Shambhala on October 28, 2012

One of the most important artifacts of the ancient world — the Elgin Marbles — has come to the USA in the form of a new watercolor exhibition in Boston.

The Elgin Marbles were acquired Lord Elgin when he served as ambassador to the Ottoman court of the Sultan in Istanbulin between 1801 and 1805. The sculptures were later bought by the British Parliament and given to the British Museum where they currently reside. However, Greece has repeatedly called for the artifacts to be returned to their country of origin.
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This case is not particularly unique – but once again, it highlights the importance that Britain sees in retaining its own artworks – whilst regularly decrying other countries trying to retrieve their artworks that have been acquired in the past by Britain. Either keeping it local is good, or not – playing it this way only when it suits, shows the double standards applied to the restitution arguments.

From:
BBC News

20 January 2011 Last updated at 10:59
Freed slave portrait saved from export

The first British portrait of a freed slave, which faced being lost to the nation, will remain in the UK for the next five years.

William Hoare’s painting of Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, also known as Job ben Solomon, was purchased by the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) in 2009.
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