Stilly -

You probably got the link from my mis-post, that has been deleted by clones. (Thanks Clones.) The link about the big flap is to www.artrenewal.org, and on their home page there are several links to an ongoing flap about the Minneapolis Institute of Art putting up a Bouguereau (first class artist; Bohemienne, most popular work at the MIA, and an excellent piece, apparently deliberately hidden for several years by the MIA director to make people "forget about it" so he could sell it off; and with some collatoral "lying" about the condition of the piece thrown in to boot) - to buy a "semi good" piece by a second rate, although not unimportant, artist. I don't know for sure that this is the same "big scene" mentioned by Jim Dixon (04:51 PM - first link) but it's likely that it is.

The MIA acquired the work a few years ago for about $30K, at about the same time that Sylvester Stallone bought his Bouguereau, Alma Parens, for about the same price. Some people told Stallone he got cheated when he bought it, but he sold his about 1.5 years ago for $2,640,000 (nice profit, even spread over 5 years) and another Bouguereau (Charity) sold a little later topped $3.6 million - not an inconsequential sale. The MIA painting doesn't have naked ladies like the other two, but is definitely one of Bouguereau's better works. And there are only about 70 Bouguereau paintings in "public" museums in the US, so it's a big chunk out of what's available to the public here if this one is sold outside the country or to a "private" collector - both likely.

John