Minister Alexandrescu: Romania starts today negotiations for the purchase of Constantin Brancusi's sculpture Wisdom of the Earth

Negotiations for the purchase of Constantin Brancusi's sculpture Wisdom of the Earth by the Romanian state begin on Friday, announced Culture Minister Vlad Alexandrescu. 

"A negotiation will take place based on the expert report, based on market value, and of course based on several arguments... the conservation condition of the work," the minister told Realitatea TV private broadcaster. 

He added that the Bucharest-based owners are very reasonable and willing to sell the sculpture, which cannot leave the country, and acknowledged that the work has a higher market value in France, the United Kingdom and in the United States than on the Romanian art market. 

"The Romanian state has the legal right of preemption at the price to be established for the sale. The negotiation is carried out directly with the owners. There have been several valuations. There are also figures of international auctions, but in the case of this work (...) there is a law stipulating that the art works classified as Thesaurus, such as the Wisdom of the Earth, cannot leave Romania permanently," the minister detailed. 

According to him, the sate should contribute to purchasing the sculpture "irrespective of the nation's prosperity," to do justice to Brancusi, whose works were deemed decadent and formalist by the Communist regime in the 1950s. There was even an attempt to uproot his Endless Column of Targu Jiu, using a tractor, Alexandrescu reminded. 

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