WASHINGTON, DC.- Sergio Cortesini of the University of Cassino in Italy has been awarded the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s 2010 Terra Foundation for American Art International Essay Prize. Cortesini was selected by an international review panel for his essay “Unseen Canvases: Italian Painters and Fascist Myths across the American Scene.” Cortesini is the first winner of the prize, which recognizes excellent scholarship by a scholar in the field of American art history based outside the United States. The annual award, established in 2009, honors essays that advance the understanding of historical American art and demonstrate new findings and original perspectives. Essays written in foreign languages are translated into English for publication. The author receives a $500 award and his essay will be published in the Spring 2011 issue of the museum’s journal American Art (vol. 25, no. 1). “I am delighted that Sergio Cortesini, the inaugural recipient of