Crowdfunding to Save Boldini's Portrait of Donna Franca Florio from Auction

A grassroots campaign has launched to prevent Giovanni Boldini's 1901 portrait of Franca Florio from leaving Palermo. The painting, commissioned by industrialist Ignazio Florio, depicts the baroness known as the "Queen of Sicily." After the Florio family's financial collapse, it was sold to Baron Rothschild, then auctioned at Christie's New York in 1995, and later at Sotheby's in 2005, when it was purchased by Società Acqua Marcia of Francesco Bellavista Caltagirone and displayed at Hotel Villa Igiea. Following the company's bankruptcy, the painting is now slated for auction by Bonino auction house in Rome on March 30, 2017. A crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo under the hashtag #RiportiamoacasaFranca has raised only $5,000 so far. The painting is currently at the Vittoriano for a Boldini retrospective. Italy's Soprintendenza has imposed a cultural heritage restriction preventing permanent export; foreign buyers may keep it abroad only six months every two years. Critic Vittorio Sgarbi has provocatively suggested using Palermo's €1 million budget as 2018 Italian Capital of Culture to acquire the work. The campaign highlights the lack of public funding for art acquisitions in Sicily.