Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 97. (Budapest, 2002)

NÉMETH, ISTVÁN: A Generous Gift or a Healthy Compromise? Some Contributions to the Background of the Donation of a Painting by El Greco

possession.

7 A possible explanation for that is provided by some contemporary sources, above all Gábor Térey's account on the Paris sale that raised international attention. He reported that Nemes' pictures had fetched quite good prices so Nemes had had the opportunity to redeem thirty-eight of the best-loved pieces of his collection. Although Térey did not specify any of the repurchased works, The Penitent Magdalen must have been one of those.

8 Thus we can presume that Nemes entertained a special affection for his pictures by El Greco, all the more so since only three of them had remained in his possession 58. Marcell Nemes. Scetch by Rippl-Rónai (reproduced from Ernst Museum Aukciói 1934). The inscription on the drawing reads "There is a Greco somewhere, tough" 7 In the catalogue of the sale held on June 17-18, 1913, at Manzi-Joyant in Paris, The Penitent Magdalen appeared as Lot 28. While a number of paintings by El Greco formerly in the Nemes collection were shown at the exhibition of nationalized art treasures in the Műcsarnok, Budapest, in 1919 as the properly of Mór Herzog, The Penitent Magdalen, together with the Portrait of the Cardinal Don Fernando Nino de Guevara and The Immaculate Conception, were put on display as coming from Marcell Nemes in the same place. See: A köztulajdonba vett műkincsek első kiállítása, Műcsarnok, Budapest 1919, cat. 1/30 [The Immaculate Conception), cat. 1/34 (The Penitent Magdalen), and cat. 44 (Portrait of the Cardinal Don Fernando Nino de Guevara). 8 The autograph report of Gábor Térey is preserved in the archives of the Museum of Fine Arts (file no. 1418/1913).