The Return Of A Titian To The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

06:04

September 02, 2021

Andrea Shea

A stuffed bull stands beside Peter Paul Rubens' 'The Rape of Europa' painting at the Prado museum on November 19, 2013 in Madrid, Spain. (Denis Doyle/Getty Images)

It was this month 125 years ago that a ravishing Italian masterpiece arrived in Boston.

Right before the pandemic, "Rape of Europa" — Isabella Stewart Gardner's “crown jewel” — left the Gardner Museum for the first time on international loan. Now it's finally back home for the last leg of a reunion exhibition tour that sheds light on Gardner as a collecting pioneer.

WBUR's Andrea Shea reports.

This segment aired on September 2, 2021.