They simply call it a “sleeper”: With a starting price of just $1,800, a perhaps undervalued previous learn portray was pulled from auction and is now assumed to be worth hundreds of thousands.
A sale of art and antiques at the Madrid auction house Ansorena on Thursday was scheduled to consist of a dirty oil on canvas of Christ getting topped with thorns, cataloged as from the “circle” of the 17th-century Spanish painter José de Ribera. The suggested setting up bid was set at 1,500 euros, or about $1,800. The Museo del Prado in Madrid, which had turn into informed that this portray may well be a extensive-shed work by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, the most celebrated of all Baroque artists, alerted Spain’s tradition ministry. And on Wednesday, the ministry declared an export ban on the painting, and it was withdrawn from the auction the subsequent day.
“About the authorship, the distinctive professionals are learning the work right now,” stated Belén Puente Herrero, the director of communications at Ansorena, who declined to provide even more information about the painting and its possession.
Two months back, the portray was noticed online by the London-based mostly previous learn dealers Marco Voena and Fabrizio Moretti, who flew to Madrid to perspective the do the job in individual. They believe that it to be a perfectly-documented but extended-misplaced Caravaggio.
