ITALY’S TREASURE SHIP

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 846, 14 December 1929, Page 11

ITALY’S TREASURE SHIP

LEONARDO DA VINCI AT LONDON BATTLE WITH STORMS British Official Wireless RUGBY, Thursday. The Italian ship Leonardo da Vinci, which carried the Italian art treasures for the exhibition which opens at Burlington House on January 1, today proceeded from Gravesend, where it arrived safely yesterday, to the West India Dock. The Foreign Secretary, Mr. Arthur Henderson, and others, will he present at the ceremony of welcome. During the voyage from Genoa, the vessel, with its precious cargo, weathered one of the worst gales of recent years. The master, Captain Starles, never once left the bridge until yesterday. The Italian Admiralty tug which acted as escort left the treasure ship temporarily to assist a distressed Italian ship. The art treasures, which are in hermetically sealed metal cases, were carried in 14 pantechnicons, which were tightly lashed and wedged with mattresses and lifebelts to trevent their movement. These vans, the contents of which are valued at £14,000.000, will be unloaded tomorrow and taken, with a police escort, to Burlington House. The unpacking will be a delicate operation, as most of the pictures, each of which is in a separate case, are over 400 years old. and the paint has been subjected to the varying temperatures of Italian summers and winters.