Sotheby’s sale to anonymous bidder of employment formerly in Guinness family fetched record value for depiction of Italian cityA Francesco Guardi painting of the Rialto Bridge and a busy Grand Canal under a dramatic and luminous blue sky has had a temporary export bar placed on it by the arts minister, Ed Vaizey.The employment locate an auction record for a painting of Venice when it was sold in July for £26.7m to an anonymous bidder at Sotheby’s in London.Before that the painting – Venice, a View of the Rialto Bridge, Looking North, from the Fondamenta del Carbon – had been passed down through various members of the Guinness family including, recently, a former arts minister, the late Paul Channon.It is regarded as an extremely vital example of Guardi’s employment. The export bar allows age for someone to come up with the money to keep the painting in Britain.The employment certainly has a wow factor. Simon Swynfen Jervis, who sits on the reviewing committee which decides on export licences for such vital works, said: “This noble painting represents Francesco Guardi on a grand scale, emulating Canaletto and Bellotto.”Whether it was patterns of patronage or his own inclination which later impelled him towards a smaller scale and lighter touch, this View of the Rialto demonstrates that in 1768 he could impress as well as delight.”The reviewing committee chose that the export choice should be deferred since of the “outstanding aesthetic importance” of the employment together with its significance to the study of Guardi’s development, Venetian view painting and Grand Tour patronage and taste.The value the painting fetched at Sotheby’s in the summer surpassed its pre-sale estimate of £15m-£25m. Before then it had been sold only once. It was first bought in 1768 by a young English grand tourist called Chaloner Arcedeckne and it stayed in his family until it was sold to Sir Edward Guinness, the chief executive and then chairman of the brewing corporation.PaintingArtArt marketsItalyEuropeMark Brownguardian.co.uk © 2011 Twitter News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Employ of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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