Juhász Magdolna (szerk.): A Kaposvári Rippl-Rónai Múzeum Közleményei 4. (Kaposvár, 2016)
Gáspár Ferenc: Viharfelhők a Róma villa felett. A Ripp-Rónai hagyaték utóélete
420 Storm clouds above the “Róma Villa” The afterlife of the Rippl-Rónai legacy FERENC GÁSPÁR The final will and testament of the wife of József Rippl- Rónai induced conflicts amongst the relatives claiming parts of the legacy. Strangely, the intellectual legacy of the painter - his works of art - were not included on the legacy list, but despite of this fact was no excuse for any altercations between them. In our work, we try to follow the traces of the wandering of his creations. Significant artworks ended up at a young collector's, who became owner of more main works (chef - d’oeuvre) of the painter during the last years of the widow - as a result of the strong spiritual bond formed between them. The stepdaugther of the painter, Anella Páris started a lawsuit to get one of these paintings back, because she had already received that artwork from the artist himself years ago, so no one else had a right to claim it for him- or herself. The witness confessions at the trial seemed to confirm that more paintings might have ended up under inappropriate and unworthy circumstances at this collector’s, not just the artwork known by the name 'Claudine'. We demonstrate the proceeding based on original court transcripts. We use letters from private collections to demonstrate the relationship between the widow and Ferenc Völgyessy (1908-1992), who later on became quite a significant collector of art. We also present the story of the collection that includes the artwork of the greatest Hungarian painters (Szinnyei, Ferenczy, Gulácsy, Csontváry, etc.); nonetheless, we think that the accusations mentioned above were more than excessive.
