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(MICHAELANGELO
from page 2)
The French Embassy had by then contacted the Howards asking that the statue be returned, since Marshall Plan money was available. A courier was dispatched from Washington to fetch the statue. He went to the bank with an empty traveling case, but left the bank with a full one. Rather than the statue, however, the case contained the many documents that accompanied it. The thieves followed him and the bag, stole the bag and hanged the courier in the basement of the hotel. When investigation into the death proved fruitless, officials declared it a suicide and closed the case. The perpetrators were never captured.
The statue was saved and the Embassy sent two couriers, well guarded, to retrieve the Michae-langelo. Since then, it has reposed in the cathedral at St. Alons.	Edith	Back
REAL OR FAKE ?
The sculpture traveled from France to the United States accompanied by a number of documents attesting to its authenticity. Among them were letters from notaries such as L. Reau, professor of History of Art at the Sor-bonne, President of the Antiquaries of France, Curator of Hermitage Museum at St. Petersburg, and founder of the Art School of Vienna, who wrote in 1939, "The veritable personal characteristics of Michaelangelo so vividly portrayed in this Pieta' prove beyond doubt that it cannot
be the work of any other artist." Others were written by Louis Brehier, Professor of the Academy of Belles-Lettres and of Inscriptions, and Professor of the University of the History of Art; by Raoul Mabni, Professor of Sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1944; And numerous other European art professors and historians.
One of the documents accompanying the pieta' on its American journey refers to a denial from the Metropolitan Museum of Art that it was a work of Michaelangelo. The writer notes: "I was quite interested in the denial, since according to the governing citizens of Clermont-Ferrand, the Metropolitan Museum of Art had earlier attempted to purchase the statue, but at an unreasonably low rate."
In the Municipal Library of Clermont-Ferrand is an 1831 document from the memoirs of Verdier Latour, a Benedictine monk who listed many art treasures in the St. Alyre Abbey, including "une Vierge de Michaelangelo." The translation reads, "Throughout the centuries the sculpture we [the Cleremont-Ferrand community] have is the only sculpture attributed to Michaelangelo that had ever been in Cleremont-Ferrand and since this Pieta' has never left Cleremont-Ferrand but remained here after the Revolution in a Cleremont-Ferrand family down to the present time, it is without doubt the statue mentioned in the old documents of St. Alyre Abbey and the Municipal Library at Cleremont-Ferrand".
There are other documents
in the possession of Mr. Keamy Robert that have been translated from the French for this Newsletter by Mrs. Emily deMontluzin and Miss Lorraine deMontluzin. Copies in our files are available for inspection in the Lobrano House.
We of the Society offer sincere thanks to Mr. Robert for sharing his precious documents with us, and to the deMontluzin ladies for their translations.
Edith Back
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
Thanks to Carter Church and Yancy Pogue who are allowing us to show their new home, La Marin , as a fund-raiser for our new auditorium. Also, the RSVP volunteers have been extremely generous in offering their members to work as hostesses . The hours for showing are Thu. thru Sat. 10 to 3, Sundays noon to 3, from Aug. 10 to Aug. 27.
Charles H. Gray
LOBRANO HOUSE HOURS
MON. 8 to 4	or	by
TUE. 8 to 4 appointment THU. 8 to 4
^HISTORIAN
of Hancock County
Publisher:	Charles	H.	Gray
Editor:	Edith	Back
Published monthly by the
HANCOCK COUNTY HISTORICAL • SOCIETY
108CueSL or P.O. Box312
Bay St. Louis, Ms. 30520 Telephone [601] 467-4090