The old painting gallery of Ploieşti, established in 1931, represents the starting point of the Art Museum in Ploieşti, part of the current PrahovaCountyArt Museum. This painting gallery was established in the 1930's, very productive years for the appearance of galleries or different museums, in Romania as well as in Europe for that matter. The sine qua non element for the establishment, functioning and valuation of a museum is the collections. Very often these collections have been donated, or they have enriched their number along the years through donations. The painting gallery of Ploieşti and even the PrahovaCountyArt Museum don't belong to this felicitous generality. The Ploieşti painting gallery appeared thanks to the thought, power of discernment, and ability of a group of intellectuals from Ploieşti, who purchased valuable pieces during a really harsh period of time – in the very years of the Great Depression. Their gesture and their courage should be appreciated more exactly for this reason. Donations haven't been the starting point of Ploieşti painting gallery, nor have they altered the life of that institution later, not substantially anyway. That is why, because of this historical background, the gesture made by Mrs. Suzana STERE PALEOLOGU, her donation of the Şeulescu-Stere collection to Prahova museum, containing 16 art objects of different types – medieval art, Romanian modern art, works belonging to the great painter Nicolae Grigorescu (1838-1907), is a really special situation. The potential extremely high value of each piece made it necessary for the various works to be carefully examined so that they should be properly inscribed in the coordinates of medieval and modern art, as well as to be sure that the evaluation was correct so as to list them in inventories / catalogues. The examinations made by specialists and experts Ioana Iancovescu, researcher with the Art History Institute in Bucharest, Ioana Beldiman, university lecturer with the Art Academy in Bucharest, and Dr. Livia Drăgoi, certified expert, curator of the Art Museum in Cluj-Napoca, revealed important scientific data. Some of these data led to the modification of thematic attributes from the initial donation list, others led to the clear statement of circulation of some of the Nicolae Grigorescu's paintings, belonging to this donation. One of the most impressive attributions is undoubtedly the change of the status of a painting, which previously bore the comment "Saulescu Family Ancestor," with an anonymous author. Now they have the certainty that this is a painting belonging to a rare and rather absent author in our collections, called Nicolae Polcovnicul Zugravul, and this makes the painting liable to be inscribed in the treasury category. The will of the donor, Mrs. Suzana STERE PALEOLOGU, to return these works in our country honors her in a very special way, taking into consideration that some peculiarities of their initial source and their later circulation (especially the Nicolae Grigorescu paintings) links them to the first owner of the house where the Art Museum has its current headquarters, banker Ghiţă Ionescu and his family.Thanks to the donor's beautifully civic gesture, the public from Ploieşti and many more, can see in a museum room, according to the donor's specific wish, the 16 pieces of Romanian art representing the whole donation. 2003 To Mrs. Ruxandra Ionescu, Curator of the PrahovaArt Museum Dear Madam, I want to thank you again for the "Şeulescu-Stere collection" catalogues you sent me, which gave me the possibility to offer my friends and relatives a really valuable and instructive gift. I say "instructive" because we all appreciated the fact that instead of a simple enumeration of the exhibits, this catalogue is really an erudite work, the result of detailed research in the art history of our country. The objects aren't only identified, but also integrated in the historic context of the age when they were created, making surprising disclosures and analogies of great insight. All of us who had the opportunity to read this catalogue, appreciated the beauty of the edition, the graphics and reproductions, as well as the text which contains original information even for those close friends of Grigorescu, such as his granddaughter Mrs. Ruxandra Vlahuţă, and for the members of the Şeulescu family, for example Mr. Niculae Racotta. I am truly happy that these art objects are now in the possession of the Museum you so carefully and devotedly manage. Your competence as well as the examinations which you so professionally included in the catalogue, give me the confidence to continue to donate / offer in the near future new art objects to your museum. With great consideration, Suzana Stere PaleologuLe Chesnay, 29/ 12/ 03
by Ruxandra Ionescu
