WARSAW: Poland’s culture ministry on Thursday bought a private art collection worth an estimated two billion euros that includes Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Lady with an Ermine’.

The 15th-century portrait of a young woman holding a white ermine, a kind of short-tailed weasel, is one of just four known paintings of women by the Renaissance master. Another is the ‘Mona Lisa’.

“Ladies and gentlemen, as Polish citizens, we are now all owners of the Czartoryski collection,” Culture Minister Piotr Glinski said to applause at the signing ceremony at the Royal Castle in Warsaw.

Sitting alongside him among marble columns and chandeliers and under a fresco was Prince Adam Karol Czartoryski, president of the foundation that sold the collection. “I am basically just following my ancestors who always worked for the Polish nation,” the 76-year-old prince, who lives abroad, told the audience. Glinski said the country paid 100 million euros plus tax for the tens of thousands of items, “a small fraction of the market price”.

In addition to the Da Vinci, which is insured for about 350 million euros ($365 million), the collection’s other big names include a Rembrandt, drawings by Renoir and Chopin’s letters.

‘Lady with an Ermine’ is among only 15 Da Vinci paintings in the world, according to art expert Janusz Walek. The Italian master painted the revolutionary portrait, measuring 21 by 15 inches, between 1488 and 1490.

The small oil painting on wood depicts Cecilia Gallerani, the multilingual teenage mistress of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan and one of Da Vinci’s patrons.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2016