Charles X Chandelier

Probably with Alessandro Morandotti, Rome, by October 1946 [1];

Probably transferred to or on consignment from Morandotti by Adolph Loewi, Los Angeles, stock no. 12254, October 1946-1947, as One chandelier bronze Louis XIV [1];

Purchased from Adolph Loewi by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1947.

NOTES:

[1] Frick Art Reference Library, New York, MS.129 Loewi-Robertson Archive, box 32, stock book 1939-1952, copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial files. The stock book lists Loewi’s source as “Mor. R.” This is probably Alessandro Morandotti, Rome. Morandotti was director of Loewi’s Venice gallery and took over the gallery’s operations when the Loewi family left Italy in 1939. Morandotti moved the business to Rome under the name Antiquaria, while simultaneously continuing to oversee the Venetian branch. According to Antonia Bartoli, in “Flagging a Red Flag: Contextualizing the Activities of Alessandro Morandotti between 1939 and 1945 in Light of the Art Looting Investigation Unit Report (1946-1947),” Studi di Memofonte 22 (2019): 190, Morandotti returned both the Rome and Venice branches of Antiquaria to Loewi immediately following the end of the Second World War, and eventually acquired the Italian branches from Loewi in the 1950s. This suggests that, if Morandotti is the ‘Mor. Rome’ listed in the stock book, the chandelier was technically part of the larger Loewi firm’s stock, so this transaction was likely a consignment or transfer from the Rome branch to Los Angeles.