The Washington times., 1923-08-31
MOST VALUABLE
/. PAINTING WAS
UNHEARDOF
Reni's Tiny Stolen Master
piece, Valued at $780, 900,
Puzzles Art Dealers.
BY GILMAN PARKER.
Cosmopolitan News Service.

Cosmopolitan news SerVhGes
NEW YORK, Aug. 31.-A square
inch worth $3.50!
Not cubic inch, mind you, but a
square inch about one-sixteenth Of an
inch thick!
Is it gold? No; piece Of gold IT
that dimension wouldn't be worth
more than $50, If that. Platinum
No. A diamond? Well, no one ever
heard of a diamond with figure
like tea wafer. Nor does radiuIn
come In squares.
The answer is-painted canvas!
According to Sacramento, Calif1r-
mia, dispatches, 1.-THE Entombmcnt
Of Christ painting by Guido Rem.
famous old master Of the Bolognese
school in the sixteenth and seven
teenth centuries, was stolen my5-
teriously from the E. B. Croker Art
Gallery there. Nationwide efforts
to recover 1t are being made.
w. s. Jackson, curator of the
Croker Art Gallery. declared that
the painting, while only eight by ten
inches In size, was worth $500,OOO.
As there are eighty square inches
in the canvas, the value of each
square inch would be $3.50!
NAOSb W81U8W10 E1AUGUIk.
This. leading New York art au.
thorities unhesitatingly declared To-
day, would make the REM master
piece the most valuable painting of
its size in the world. They held, OF
course, that size has little to do with
the value of painting which Is
judged almost solely on its artistic
merits. But none of the art critics.
in speaking of the works of Raphael.
Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Murillo, Ru-
ems and other old masters. could re.
call any painting as small as eight
by ten inches valued at 100000.
On such basis, it was pointed
out, its nearest rival would be Leen-
ardo Da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa, =
which was once stolen. But while
art critics described Mona Lisa" as
priceless" none was found to place
its marketable value as high as
$3,9S7 500, q figure which, In view
OF the fact the picture is about
thirty by twenty-one inches in size,
could be recorded for 1t on the basis
Of the 5000 a square inch claimed
for the stolen REM painting.
AS for "The Last Supper" Da
Vinci's great masterpiece covering
a wall Of the refectory of the
Church Of Santa Maria Dele Graz:e,
at Milan, this could be listed as
worth more than billion dollars
could a $3.50 per square inch valu-
alton be set for it! Verify, some
thing for the poor artist to dream
about.
Never Heard OF.
And now comes mystery
Il NMwsA Ha4~ ~ =
despite the fabulous value claimed
for the missing REM painting, many
leading New York art connoisseu1 s
and dealers never heard of it!
1.-THE first ever heard of Reni's
son Burroughs, curator of paintings
at the Metropolitan Museum, was on
reading Of the theft in the news
papers. And the first impression /
received was that $500, 900 would ne
an extremely high value for q REM
OF any description.
REM, OF course, was q graa1
artist, although not so well known
perhaps, as many of the other old
masters. It is barely possible that
the 'Entombment' may have been q
comparatively recent find"
Several art dealers of prominence
expressed themselves to the same ef
feet.
Study of the museums library rec.
ords showed that, up to 1904, no
painting of that title by the artist in
question was listed as hung in an.
OF the worlds leading art galleries.
However, a REM etching on the
"Entombment of Christ was, &c
cording to Mireur's dictionaire, sold
in 1855 from the Hys de Lassa.le
collection for nine francs, or about
$50. From the same reference work
1t was shown that four of Reni.s
creations, among them "Jesus Chris1
Dams LIE Tombeau Veille Par MARI.
ct des Anges," were sold in 1852 for
o total of 304 francs, but whether
this was the painting or the etching
was not made clear.
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