Caravaggio painting found in an attic now fully restored and worth £70m

Caravaggio's lost masterpiece was discovered in an attic eight years ago
13 April 2012

A £70 million masterpiece by Italian artist Caravaggio found hidden in the attic of an Italian church has been fully restored.

The 400-year-old painting was discovered by chance eight years ago while the building was being renovated.

At first it was believed the painting was a copy but after being studied by experts it emerged that it was indeed a Caravaggio.

Details were announced yesterday by restorers at the Opifico delle Pietre Dure in Florence and is estimated to be worth around £70 million.

The six foot by five foot oil painting shows Christ as a crown of thorns is forced onto his head by Roman soldiers.

A similar painting is on display at a museum in Prato near Florence and both date to the early 17th century.

It was found in a church in Genoa in 1998 and has been painstakingly restored ever since.

Caravaggio is known to have spent time in Genoa after fleeing from Rome where he had injured love rival Mariano Pasqualoni in a duel.

While there in June 1605, Caravaggio wrote out a contract to paint "a picture of the same size and value as the one I have already done of Christ's crowning."

Piero Donati, superintendent of art in Genoa, said: "We know from a rare note in Caravaggio's own handwriting that he intended to paint another Crowning with Thorns.

"We have no idea how the painting came to be in Genoa but it is without doubt one of his works and it is a fantastic discovery.

"The figure of Christ is certainly by Caravaggio as is the figure to the side holding a cane in his hand and that figures is a self portrait of the painter.

"The other figures are not his but there is some evidence of the initial outline below which would suggest he planned the painting and then it was finished off at a later stage.

"Caravaggio left a note in which he described how he was given an advance to paint another Crowning with Thorns and this is it.

"Works by Caravaggio very rarely go on the market but I would estimate this to be worth in the region of his other works which are worth tens of millions certainly at least £70 million."

The picture, however, belongs to the Catholic Church, which is highly unlikely to sell it.

Marco Ciatti, director of the Opifico said: "The painting has taken several years to restore because it was in such a poor condition.

"It was compared to the one at Prato and it is not a copy but an original Caravaggio."

Mr Ciatti added that the painting was begun by Caravaggio and then finished off in the mid 17th century by Genovese painters.

Caravaggio's works are on display in galleries across the world and very rarely come up for sale. One of his most famous works - The Taking of Christ - was recently valued at more than £70 million.

In 2004 a clean up of a painting in the Royal Art collection discovered a Caravaggio - The Calling Of Saints Peter And Andrew.

It was in a minor room at Hampton Court Palace, Surrey, but was long overlooked because of centuries of built-up dirt.

Art experts said that it had increased its value overnight from "£100,000 to tens of millions of pounds."

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