Following the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the Lobkowicz family, who had long since fled to the United States, set about reclaiming the collection.
In the gallery's audio guide, chief curator John Somerville explains how the work was purchased from the artist by Ferdinand Philip, the sixth Prince Lobkowicz of Bohemia, while he was in London buying horses -- and carrying on a scandalous affair with the wife of the Venetian ambassador.