PARIS (AP) – A picture of 400 years old that could have been executed by the Italian master Caravaggio was found in an attic in the south of France
. Eric Turquine, the French expert who recovered the painting two years ago, says that the work is in an exceptional state of preservation and estimates its value at EUR 120 million (about 135 million) .
The painting, whose authenticity has not been determined yet, spent more than 150 years in a property on the outskirts of Toulouse.
Entitled “Judith Beheading Holofernes” depicts the biblical heroine Judith decapitating a general Assyrian. It is believed that it was painted in Rome around 1604 to 1605.
Turquine said Tuesday at a press conference that “will never be a consensus” on the artist’s name.
Two experts in Caravaggio to whom he consulted painting attributed to Louis Finson, Flemish painter and art dealer who knew the work of Caravaggio, Turquine said.
Finson had some works by the Italian master and made copies of his paintings. “But the third expert with whom I met told me that not only was a Caravaggio , but also a masterpiece” Turquine said.
” ‘Judith Beheading Holofernes’ should be considered the most important painting by far that has emerged in the last 20 years of one of the great masters “.
the painting received from the French authorities the status of” National Treasure, “which means that can not be exported by 30 months, which gives museums sufficient for acquisition time.
by declaring that the work had yet to be authenticated, the Ministry of Culture of France justified its decision export ban saying “should stay in the territory (French) as a reference point caravaggismo very important”.
Richard E. Spear, a researcher of Italian Baroque art who is an expert on Caravaggio, is said “highly skeptical” that the Italian master is the author of the picture.
Spear, who has only seen pictures of the painting, told the Associated Press that there had convinced some brushstrokes and anatomical details of the characters in.
box “There is a slight strokes under the eye (Holofernes) that simply unrelated to the structure of the head,” he said. “Overall, the painting seems rather clumsy and heavy.”
The owners of the house in Toulouse discovered the painting, which had been partially damaged by water when they went up to the attic to fix a leak.
telephoned the local auctioneer Marc Labarde. After using cotton and water to clean, they recognized a seventeenth century painting school of Caravaggio.
“I told the owners they had found a beautiful painting and gave them an estimate that I dare not say “Labarde, a close associate of Turquine said. “Then I arranged shipment to Paris.”
Table Turquine kept away from the public eye for two years, to clean it and subject it to a thorough examination that included infrared reflectography and X-rays. Due to the large size of the painting, some of the tests were made in a veterinary school.
“between a horse and a cow, the radiologist looked a little surprised,” he joked Turquine. “Then he told us that we brought a painting stolen, because in fact he thought it was contemporary copy of Finson”.
That copy is exhibited in Naples and belongs to an Italian bank.
According to the expert team Turquine, both paintings were registered in the will of Finson dated in Amsterdam in 1617. Then the original disappeared.
“it’s a painting of a composition we know by other versions, and still have not figured out if there’s a Caravaggio behind, or whether it is a invension of Finson. That, we’re not sure, “said Spear
Turquine, meanwhile, says he does not need the opinion of most experts.” Everyone agrees on the fact that it is one of the masterpieces most important seventeenth century that have appeared in recent 30 years “.
from shipment to Paris sleeps with the picture in his room as a safety measure.
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