Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2008)

JÚLIA TÁTRAI AND LÁSZLO LENGYEL: Archduke Albert († 1621) on the Catafalque: A Picture of Old-New Acquisition

Zichy Collection, the previously purchased Károly Lötz legacy, a part of the "collection of the offices" and material from the City Museum of Budapest not strictly pertaining to the city's history. The first exhibition took place in 1933 in the Károlyi Palace, which was purchased for the Gallery, and almost 350 objects: pictures, statues, drawings and some tapestry were exhibited.

6 The gallery was reorganised for the first time in 1938; this time works from the Zichy Collection of non-Hungarian origin were not exhibited: The Municipal Gallery became an institution exhibiting exclusively Hungarian art. In 1943 the most important pieces from the collection were stowed away in various cellars and air raid shelters. Consequently, these did not sustain any major damage during the siege. However, there was a significant loss incurred to those deposited in the Károlyi Palace and in other locations: 1,119 works were destroyed or disappeared. In 1953 the collection of the Municipal Gallery was merged with the material of the National Picture Gallery, which belonged to the Museum of Fine /Arts.

7 The original inventories of the former Jenő Zichy Collection are presently unknown. Were they available, it would be possible to identify precisely the origin of the painting depicting Archduke Albert on the catafalque.

8 Only one document has been found that refers to the existence of such written sources. The document entitled Picture inventories found in Count Jenő Zichy''

s Palace on Rózsa Street unfortunately does not list the pictures formally kept in the Zichy Palace, contrary to what its title suggests. The document is only a short record of a local inspection from 1907 carried out by an expert committee in the Zichy Palace on Rózsa Street, the members of which are not named. The author of the document, Gyula Tonláczy, stated that based on the former extensive inventories of art works

—which due to the brevity of time those present were not able to thoroughly peruse on the spot

—it could be established that the palace was not a suitable venue for exhibiting the collection. The document suggests that the museum's experts might have participated in making the inventories of the collection. However, these could not be traced in either the Museum of Fine Arts' archives or among the documents of Municipal Archives relating to the Zichy family and the Municipal Gallery.

9 Strangely, from 1953, when the Museum of Fine Arts received the Zichy Collection (130 items) along with the material from the Municipal Gallery, the total documentation consisted of a simple, typed-out list of works, which does not conform to the given norms since it does not include the names and signatures of the deliverer nor of the recipient.

10 Thus, the painting depicting Archduke Mbert on his catafalque, which was formally part of the Zichy Collection and later belonged to the Municipal Gallery's collection, would have found its place in the Museum of Fine Arts. The painting cropped up again in 2006 in a Hungarian private collection. Based on its theme, size, signature and the text written on the