The Travels of “Finding Moses”

Treasured by American audiences and purchased for the permanent collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts (PAFA) by wealthy donor, Gustavus S. Benson, it did not live there permanently. In 1950, the PAFA revised its charter to focus on American art and deaccessioned works that did not meet their new criteria, including this piece. It was given to Philip Aliano, a stonecutter and artist who taught at the PAFA school.

Sometime later of this—or possibly another version—was documented at Crisconi Oldsmobile in their showroom at the corner of Broad and Federal Streets in Philadelphia. It was also reported to have been at the Wanamaker showroom, one of the City’s largest and most pregestigious department stores.

In the 1960s, it was purchased by Nick’s Seafood Pavilion in Norfolk, Virginia. Nick and Mary Matthews considered it a prime addition to their renowned Nile Room, a favorite dining destination. In a June 8, 1980 article by The Washington Post, Blaine Harden interviewed Nick and Mary Matthews inside Nick’s and specifically identified their Egyptian princess-and-Moses sculpture as “the prize of the art collection.” The article also noted that before arriving at Nick’s, the piece had stood in a John Wanamaker department store in Philadelphia.

After Mary Matthew’s death, Nick’s Seafood Pavilion closed, and the sculpture was auctioned off in 2004 alongside the restaurant’s furnishings, deep fat fryers, and vinyl booths. By that time, its significance had been forgotten. The name and even the date of the artist’s signature, engraved on the rear, were misspelled in the auction literature. It was was sold for little more than the price of a run-of-the-mill nineteenth century Italian statue.