The Getty Museum in Los Angeles is reported to have paid as much as €30 million for a marble bust of Pope Paul V that was previously bought in Slovakia for just €24,000, according to the Pravda daily on Tuesday. It was long assumed in Slovakia that the bust was only a copy of the original produced by famous Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680), but the Getty Museum is convinced that it's bought the genuine article. The bust of the pope formed part of the property left behind by Slovak artist Ernest Zmeták, who died in 2004. The auctioneers SOGA sold the work on behalf of the inheritors of Zmeták's property in 2014 thinking that it was only a copy. It was bought by an individual called Clement Guenebeaud, who then had it examined by Francesco Petrucci, the director of the Palazzo Chigi in Ariccia, Italy. Petrucci had no doubt that the bust was made by Bernini, and it was eventually sold by Sotheby's in London. According to Austrian newspaper Der Standard, the Getty Museum paid €30 million for it, although the museum has refused to confirm the price or provide any other information. According to the daily, SOGA indeed made a mistake, however the largest error was committed by the Culture Ministry which allowed the work to be exported from Slovakia. Slovak Culture Minister Marek Maďarič has since removed the head of the ministry's cultural heritage department over the debacle. According to expert in antique European art Zuzana Konopásková, the export of the bust was a great loss for Slovakia. Such a work has never appeared in the country before, and Bernini is a name that would have drawn in plenty of visitors to the Slovak National Gallery or some other cultural institution.
