The Polish government has secured one of the countries greatest cultural assets — Princes Czartoryski Foundation — for 100 million Euros ($105 million). The collection is said to have a value of more than $2 billion … that is one nice discount … and includes such notable works as Leonardo’s Lady with an Ermine and Rembrandt’s Landscape with the Good Samaritan.
The decision to sell the collection, set up more than 200 years ago by Princess Izabela Czartorysk, was not without controversy and and according to The New York Times:
After an announcement earlier this month that the ministry was in talks to buy the collection, the board of the Czartoryski foundation said that the move might be illegal, because, according to the foundation’s statute, the collection is “nontransferable and indivisible.” The board members resigned last week, after they were excluded from the talks.
The one good thing, now the entire collection will always stay in Poland.
Source: Poland Buys Czartoryski Family Art Collection
Source: Polish government buys art collection including a da Vinci for a fraction of its real value