Highlights

Description

This bronze is a scaled-down version of the ancient marble group on display in the Uffizi of Florence which is famous for its captivatingly realistic rendering of combat. In fact, it depicts two men competing in pankration, an Olympic sporting event of ancient Greece that combined wrestling and boxing. The bronze, which had been lost since the Second World War, only returned to the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in 2016. In 1939, it had been borrowed from the Museum to decorate the Prinz Carl Palais, which was used as guest house by the Nazis. Its first owner, the Elector Palatine, was married to Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici. This union was the reason for the many valuable gifts from the Florentine court, which later made their way from Düsseldorf to Munich and are now highlights of the collection of European Baroque sculpture.