The bouquet that spent 75 years away from Florence

The still life entered the Pitti Palace collection in 1824. To protect it from wartime bombing, Italian officials packed it with other works and moved them out of Florence. By 1943 the picture was at Villa Bossi-Pucci in Montagnana. The Uffizi traces the crates north during the German retreat and says a German soldier sent the still life to his wife in Halle in July 1944.

The picture slipped from the public record until late 1989, when the family in possession approached the Bavarian State Picture Galleries about its authenticity and value. Italian investigators started examining the case in 1991. An intermediary approached the Uffizi for money in 2016, and the Florence prosecutor opened an investigation into attempted extortion.

In January 2019 the Uffizi director publicly appealed for the painting and displayed a black-and-white reproduction marked as stolen. After diplomatic talks, Germany handed the original over to Italy on 19 July in Palazzo Pitti. The painting’s return also resolved one of the losses from the wartime convoy documented by Allied art officers.