Florence's Uffizi Gallery has nixed plans to send a Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece on loan to a major Italian cultural showcase in Japan. "There are works that, per se, exclude themselves from
loans," Uffizi director Antonio Natali said Thursday after press reports that Leonardo's Annunciation would be the centrepiece of 'Primavera Italiana 2007' in Tokyo next year.
"They are the heights of figurative art, which cannot run risks, especially at times like these".
"I'm talking about pictures like the Annunciation, Michelangelo's Holy Family or the great Botticelli works that form the nucleus of the Uffizi".
Natali paid tribute to Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli for leaving decisions on loaning out such works to "the officials concerned".
The Annunciation, one of Leonardo's early masterpieces, is one of the top attractions of the Florence gallery, which boasts the world's best collection of works from the Florentine Renaissance. Leonardo (1452-1519) probably painted it in 1472-75, when he was barely out of his teens.
Despite this, experts say it has a similar impact to mature masterpieces like the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper.
