The King and the Craftsman
Few works of art are as closely linked to history as the gold salt cellar commissioned by Francis I of France in 1541 from the Florentine goldsmith and sculptor, Benvenuto Cellini. Its theft three years ago from an Austrian art gallery is a major loss to world heritage as Robert Knecht explains.
About 4 am on Sunday May 11th, 2003, thieves broke into the Kunsthistorischesmuseum in Vienna and carried off one of the greatest treasures produced by the Italian Renaissance: the gold salt cellar made by Benvenuto Cellini for the French king, Francis I. Although the theft caused a stir in the Austrian capital, it received scant attention in the British press. The theft of Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ from the gallery in Oslo attracted far more attention, as did the theft of Leonardo’s ‘Madonna of the Yarnwinder’ from Drumlanrig castle, yet it can be argued that the salt cellar is an infinitely greater loss on account of its uniqueness. It was almost the only surviving work made by Cellini during his stay in France. It has been described as ‘one of the finest and most characteristic achievements of its period in any medium’.
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