The Boston Raphael

New York Times bestseller

The full, inside story of how the discovery of a previously unknown painting by Raphael, the Italian Renaissance master, went from media sensation to career-destroying scandal.

On the eve of its centennial celebrations in December, 1969, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts announced the acquisition of an unknown and uncatalogued painting attributed to Raphael.

Boston’s coup made headlines around the world. Soon afterward, an Italian art sleuth began investigating the details of the painting’s export from Italy, challenged the museum’s right to ownership. Simultaneously, experts on both sides of the Atlantic lined up to debate its very authenticity. While these contests played themselves out on the international stage, the crisis deepened within the museum as its charismatic director, Perry T. Rathbone, faced the most challenging crossroads of his thirty-year career.

The story of the forces that converged on the museum, and how they led to Rathbone's resignation as director, is only now fully revealed in this compelling, behind-the-scenes story that reveals how the art world, media, and museums work.

Praise for The Boston Raphael

“Perhaps the most exciting book on the art world since Jonathan Harr’s The Lost Painting.” —The Boston Globe

“In the compelling story of her father, Perry Rathbone, and the years when he was the elegant and revolutionary director of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Belinda Rathbone evokes our country’s most glamorous years… The Boston Raphael is a combination of personal memoir and rich, deliciously detailed history that will keep you turning the pages.” —Susan Cheever

“In this fascinating book about a watershed moment in the culture of America's art museums, Rathbone (Walker Evans) considers her father Perry Rathbone's directorship at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA) . . . [Rathbone's] book sheds light on museology of the present as well as of the past.” —Publishers Weekly