Excerpt from Painting, Vol. 2: With a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters Into England Since the French Revolution
In his progress through Italy, Buonaparte made a parade of justice in confining the contributions of works of art to what might be considered as the public property of the states, which fell under the dominion of his arms, but at the same time he levied heavy sums in money on the Princes and nobility of the different states who had opposed his arms, and when he saw that these were paid, he renewed his demands for further supplies so long as he found that the proprietors of works of art still retained their ancient treasures: hence it was that the Princes Colonna Borghese, Barberini, Ghigi, Corsini, Falconieri, Lancellotti, Spada, &c. with many of the noble families, of Rome, were forced (as an act of prudence) to dispose of their pictures, in order to prove that they had no longer the means of supporting these heavy and continued contributions.
Among those who profited in the first instance by the sale of these precious objects, were the commissaries of the French army and the bankers, and moneyed men residing in Rome itself.
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