Italy’s global search for new directors to safeguard culture and heritage

Our daily round-up of news from the art world

Italy launches global search for nine new museum directors | Following the high-profile appointment of 20 new museum directors in Italy last year, the country’s ministry for cultural heritage and tourism has announced another global call for applications to lead nine more cultural sites. Herculaneum, the Phlegraean Fields, Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli and the Villa Guilia are among the sites whose directorships are up for grabs, reports the Daily Telegraph. ‘By the end of the year, another nine jewels of Italian cultural heritage will have directors picked from among the best experts in museum management’, said culture minister Dario Franceschini.

Fifth canvas stolen from Westfries Museum returned | Yesterday, a fifth canvas that was stolen from the Westfries Museum in 2005 was handed in to staff at the Dutch embassy in Kiev, reports Le Figaro. (French language article.) The individual responsible for the handover claimed to have purchased Izaak Ouwater’s Nieuwstraat in Hoorn (1784) ‘completely in good faith, with a certificate of authenticity.’ According to the museum, he was prepared to hand over the work unconditionally. Ukrainian police are continuing their search for the remaining 19 paintings.

Portrait of Jane Seymour identified in Cambridge townhouse | A painting that has hung in a Cambridge townhouse for more than a century has been identified as a portrait of Jane Seymour, the Queen of England from 1536–37, reports the Daily Telegraph. The portrait is believed to have been painted by a follower of Holbein, whose own remarkably similar likeness of Henry VIII’s last wife hangs in Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum. When the work is sold through Cheffins auctioneers in June, it is expected to fetch £20,000–£30,000.

Peter Brant assumes full control of art titles | Collector and publisher Peter Brant has announced that he has now assumed full control of his stable of art publications, reports the New York Times. The titles in question – Art In America and ARTnews – were last year subject to a complex merger, are now legally owned by Brant publications.