“All of that is true. Stirling did the project, and if it did not go ahead it was due to lack of funding: neither Heini’s family nor the Swiss financial authorities helped. So they had to look for a solution outside of Lugano. And there were all those attendees, including the British government and a German museum, and it was the Getty Foundation that was closest. What was decisive was the intervention of Tita, who convinced Heini that the collection would be dissolved as part of the Getty, while in Spain a deal would be achieved that would keep it in ages”.
Heini’s favorite painting was …
There is always talk of the Portrait of Giovanna Tornabuoni, from Ghirlandaio, as Heini’s favorite piece in the entire collection. However, Solana points rather to a picture of Caravaggio.
“He talked mostly about the Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Caravaggio. It was the favorite of favorites, bought from the family Barberini for an amount well below its price when Caravaggio was not as appreciated as now. The baron was fascinated by it.
“The story of the portrait of Henry VIII for Holbein. The painting arrived in the collection at the time of Heini’s father, who bought it directly from Lord Spencer, grandfather of Lady Diana. When years later the father of Lady Di, the seller’s son, was in Lugano looking at the collection, Simon de Pury asked him: ‘Is it true that your father sold the Holbein to buy a Bugatti? ‘ And he replied: ‘Well no, my father invested money to pay for my education, although I don’t know if it was worth it.’ It was a very special sale, because the Holbein was an object of British national heritage, of extraordinary quality, and the English envy us and are saddened by the release of that work ”.
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