The export of Old Masters from Poldi Pezzoli's Milan to international museums: Some case-studies through unpublished sources.

This article examines Milan’s pivotal role in the nineteenth-century international art market, focusing on the export of artworks to major museums such as the National Gallery in London, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Royal Museums in Berlin, and the Imperial Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. Through analysis of export documents, unpublished manuscripts by connoisseurs Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle and Joseph Archer Crowe, and archival sources, it reveals how Milan functioned as a key center for art connoisseurship and trade amid evolving legal and political frameworks, including export regulations and diplomatic interventions. The study highlights cases of contested attributions, conflicts of interest within export commissions, and instances of illicit or facilitated exports, illustrating the complexities that eventually led to Italy’s heritage protection laws in the early twentieth century.