exhibited at the Pan-American exhibition at Buffalo and was set up at the exhibition grounds "Venice in America" in hopes for a sale. After the work did not sell, the director of the Met, General Cesnola, arranged for the work to be set up within the sculpture hall at the museum. At a private viewing before the exhibition opened, museum trustees were appalled by the "immorality" of the work. and ordered it removed from display. Biondi sued the museum for $200,000 for breach of contract and for damages for the harm their actions caused his reputation. The New York Supreme Court ruled in favor of the museum, stating that the museum director did not have the authority to enter into a binding contract without the vote of the board of trustees, and that the document Biondi thought to be a contract was actually a receipt for his work. Later life Biondi died in Rome in 1917. Style Biondi preferred to work with bronze instead of marble and at one point located his studio near the Nelli Bronze Foundry in Rome so that he could more "easily superintend the process of casting". Many of his sculptures featured Middle Eastern and Asian themes, such as caravans. Other works depicted scenes from ancient Rome. Selected works Fountain of the Puttos, Montelanico, Italy Saturnalia 1899 The Fountain Biondi, Cisterna, Italy Monument to the Italian Risorgimento's Heroes, Piazza della Libertà, Frosinone, Italy 1910 Footnotes References Taft, Lorado, Modern Tendencies in Sculpture: The Scammon Lectures at the Art Institute of Chicago, 1917, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois 1928 External links Jardin Botanico de Buenos Aires - Guía de Buenos Aires - Buenos Aires Guide at www.ompersonal.com.ar Ernesto Biondi's biography, at valutarte.it 1855 births People from Frosinone 1917 deaths 20th-century Italian sculptors 20th-century Italian male artists 19th-century Italian sculptors 19th-century Italian male artists Italian male sculptors