How does this artwork elucidate its Provenance?
The bust was only rediscovered as an authentic work by Bernini in the 1980s. It had been in the hands of an English nobleman, and then an antiques dealer, before being recognised as a Bernini by Nicholas Meinertzhagen, a dealer in antiquarian books. Meinertzhagen, who had purchased the bust around 1978 for £240, managed to sell it on at a price of £132,000. The next buyer, Norman Leitman, managed to achieve a much higher price when he sold it via the auctioneers Sotheby's to Canadian collectors Joey and Toby Tanenbaum in 1983 for £2.78 million—the price had risen dramatically after art historian Irving Lavin had commented that "In my opinion the bust is not only the original, it is wholly autograph (i.e. by the master's own hand) and one of the most perfect and important of Bernini's early works." The Tanenbaums then donated the piece to the Art Gallery of Ontario; however, the circumstances of the donation are not entirely clear. The Tanenbaums had tried to sell the piece at a 1990 Christie's auction for more than US$7 million—while bids at the auction reached US$6 million, the auction failed to reach the expected target and the bust was withdrawn from that sale.
Art Gallery of Ontario