Sheer coincidence came into, on February 2009, play just as we were finishing the catalogue for the forthcoming temporary exhibition aimed at recovering the figure of Barcelona-born neoclassical sculptor, Antoni Solà (1780-1861), who achieved international fame in Rome, when the museum purchased one of his heretofore unseen works at a Madrid auction.

The purchase is a marble sculpture group entitled Two Children Playing with a Butterfly, which is dated and signed in Rome in 1839.

The forthcoming exhibition entitled The Ideal Beauty. Antoni Solà (1780-1861), Sculptor in Rome, the first one devoted to this artist, aims to do justice to his name. It is slated to display a dozen works, most of which have not been exhibited outside their place of origin until now, including this new group.

Until now the Museu Frederic Marès has owned the first known work by Antoni Solà, the relief that won him the competition through which he was awarded his stipend in Rome granted by the Board of Trade. With this new acquisition, this sculpture has been joined by the group depicting Two Children Playing with a Butterfly (1839), which enriches not just the museum's collections but Barcelona's sculpture holdings.