Wednesday, May 09, 2012

"He's Our SOB"

We went to the Borghese Gallery today.  This is the top museum in Rome.  This is the one that you need reservations for (they are booked thru May 15th Frank).  Scipion Borghese was the nephew of Pope Paul V and was made Cardinal for the sole purpose of stealing art for the Vatican.  This is where the term nepotism comes from.  He could steal whole art collections better than Govenor Ed Rendell (The Art Of The Steal).  Old nephew Scipy got to keep a lot of the loot for himself, especially some pieces thought  a little risqué or pagan for the Holy Sea. However, what goes around comes around and Napolean walked off with a sizable chunk of the collection which now hangs in the Louvre.  So for 16 euros you get to spend two hours with Caravaggio, Raphael, Bernini and Rubens.  

3 comments:

Aunt Dot said...

Ummmm...maybe we'll just go ahead and skip that one this time :-)

Babba Gi said...
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Babba Gi said...

You mustn't skip the Borghese Galleria . Scoundrels and thieves are the basis of art as well as real estate. I'd hate to see you skip the Vatican just because they don't have a receipt for half their stuff.

12:55 PM