Thesis (J.S.M.)--Stanford University, 2005. / Submitted to the Stanford Program in International Legal Studies at the Stanford Law School, Stanford University. "May 2005." Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1982. / Vita. Bibliography: leaves [334]-359.

Univ., Habil.-Schr.--Kiel, 2003.

No description available.

This thesis aims to document and discuss the role and legacy of the Italian antiquario Alessandro Contini Bonacossi (1878-1955) in the international secondary art market for Old Master paintings during the first half of the twentieth century. Grounded in the discovery of primary archival evidence and set against the major historical events that unfolded during his lifetime, this work presents its findings by following a research process adopted to answer the following research questions: who was Contini Bonacossi, what was his business network (where was he buying paintings, at what prices, and who were his clients), what was his modus operandi for selling and marketing his work, and what is his legacy. To answer these questions, I made extensive use of primary sources, the vast majority of which are unpublished or have never been used before in this context, framed by a contextualized analysis of their historical background. The archival investigation has brought to light, for the first time, documentary evidence of Contini Bonacossi's transactions and business ties with other European dealers such as Duveen Brothers, Heinemann Galleries, Colin Agnew, Colnaghi, Böhler, Steinmeyer, and Kleinberger Galleries; with scholars such as Wilhelm von Bode, Roberto Longhi, and Bernard Berenson; as well as previously unknown connections Contini Bonacossi had with members of the Harvard museum community and the Boston cultural elite such as Paul Sachs (1878-1965), Edward W. Forbes (1873-1969) Denmann Ross (1853-1935); and offers new details regarding his relationship with the Kress Brothers, their gifts of artworks to the new National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and the Kress Foundation's Regional Program that endowed museums across the US. Ultimately, this work adds to our knowledge important sources for the study of the history of private and public collecting during its crucial years in the formation of American museums. More broadly, in documenting Contini Bonacossi's case, this study strives to rethink the role of art dealers, to look at them not solely as market professionals engaged in the dynamics of supply, demand and profit, but first and foremost as bearers and sellers of culture, whose activities were fully embedded in the socio-political environment of their time and so to acknowledge and extend knowledge about their active role in the international dissemination and interpretation of cultural heritage.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, November, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

L’art de Rembrandt, s’il est vivement admiré dans la France du XVIIIe siècle, n’en déroute pas moins ces biographes. En dépit d’un génie largement reconnu, il incarne le rejet des règles classiques défendues par l’académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. De fait ces contempteurs n’ont de cesse de dénoncer sa manière « peu léchée », son « style raboteux » ainsi que sa prétendue méconnaissance de la peinture italienne. Son œuvre gravé seul échappe à cette doxa : si la technique du peintre est pour une grande part incomprise, ses gravures, a contrario, font l’objet d’un véritable engouement, ouvrant par là-même de vastes perspectives au sein de l’histoire de l’art du XVIIIe siècle français : théoriques d’abord, puisque ses estampes font l’objet du premier catalogue raisonné en 1751 par Edme-François Gersaint (1694-1751), Jean-Baptiste Glomy (1694-1750) et Pierre-Charles –Alexandre Helle ( ?-1767), artistique ensuite, encourageant par son exemple l’art de la gravure, donnant naissance à de nombreuses imitations, copies, pastiches, fruit du labeur appliqué tant des graveurs professionnels que des amateurs éclairés, fervents collectionneurs de son œuvre gravé. / In the beginning of the eighteenth century, the reception of the Rembrandt ‘s prints is ambivalent, account of the difficulty to conciliate the evident genius of the Dutch master with the classical norms of the French Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture. What is more, the majority of French amateurs doesn’t know wery well the Rembrandt’s prints : most of them are part of the dutch culture, illustration of dutch books, ( Médéa), dutch customs (The star of the Kings) or dutch citizen ( Jan Six). The multiplication of the impressions of a same print adds to this problem. This explain why Edme-François Gersaint (1694-1750), one of the most important art dealer in Paris compiled the first comprehensive book to understand the Rembrandt’s prints, a Catalogue raisonné, published in 1751, which he introduced to this form for the first time. With this book, Gersaint gives to the Rembrandt’s prints numbers and titles which are still in use nowadays, and creates criteria to serve as a means for attributing a work to the master, a pupil, an imitator or a forgers. All this system has for result to avoid misunderstandings or confusions with the prints of Bol or Lievens. Translated in the year 1752 in English, it is reworked by Adam Bartsch in 1797 and sell in all Europe. This dissertation proposes to study the genesis of the Gersaint’s catalogue, how Rembrandt’s prints have permitted to create this particular form of art literature, how the French dealer finds anecdotes on Rembrandt’s prints and the titles, still in use nowadays. In a second part, we will interest us on the posterity of the catalogue, how it becames a model too and will modifies all the perception of Rembrandt oeuvre in particular and the perception of prints in general, a perception that we still have and, finally, giving birth to an important numbers of copies and pastiches caused by professionals engravers and amateurs.

No description available.

The thesis investigates the interaction that developed between a major art dealer, Thos. Agnew and Sons (Agnews), and a principal public collection, the London National Gallery, from 1855 to 1928. Agnews played a crucial role in the life of the National Gallery and greatly facilitated the museum accession of important paintings, such as the Madonna Ansidei by Raphael, the Rokeby Venus by Velazquez, the Portrait of Doge Vincenzo Morosini by Tintoretto, and many others. In turn, collaborating with the National Gallery allowed Agnews to penetrate the international Old Masters market and reach for higher social standing. Through the analysis of ten case studies of acquisitions, which are supported by new archival evidence and are contextualised within a broader historical and theoretical framework, this thesis charts the emergence, development and decline of the rapport between the two organisations. It analyses how Agnews and the National Gallery began as two unconnected entities in the mid-nineteenth century, explores how their distinct trajectories turned into a close, collaborative rapport during the 1880s, and finally examines how in the third decade of the twentieth century they separated and initiated a newly detached professional relationship. Appropriating sociological theories by Pierre Bourdieu, Bruno Latour, Viviana Zelizer and others, this study investigates museum acquisitions as resulting from complex interplays of cultural and commercial forces within the field of cultural production. Acquisitions are further enlightened by the analysis of the networks that underpin them, which provide additional evidence on how economic factors are embedded within broader social constructs. By detailing and locating these processes and relationships within the historical context of a broad shift towards commercialisation, yet demonstrating that cultural elements are part of the dealers activities and that commercial values are an intrinsic component of the museum, this study provides an insight into the historical origins of modern-day relationships between museums and art dealers.