“Wander through six permanent galleries [emphasis added],” the caption for the video walk-through on the La Salle University Art Museum’s homepage exhorts potential visitors. But while the galleries may be “permanent,” the installation shown on the homepage isn’t.
Some of the works featured in the video have left this building…
…and were last seen publicly here (a gallery at Christie’s):
As you will see below (unless La Salle has updated its homepage by the time you read this), two of the three works accorded starring roles in the museum’s video—the only ones with full-screen images—were among the deaccessioned works that failed to sell this week at auction (here and here). Unless Christie’s managed to negotiate their sale after the auctions (no word yet on that: I’ve asked), those works could conceivably return home to Philadelphia.
The art-market gods work in mysterious ways.
The star players, in the order in which they appear, are Tintoretto‘s “Portrait of a Gentleman,” Hubert Robert‘s “The Tomb of Virgil at Posilipo, Naples,” and Ingres‘ “Virgil Reading from the Aeneid.” The Ingres, which was the highest-priced of the La Salle castoffs, did sell, but at a price below its low estimate: