The ‘Caravaggio’ from Madrid is sold to a private individual and will be exhibited for nine months in the Prado | Culture

He Ecce Homo attributed to Caravaggio that appeared at an auction in Madrid in March 2021 has been sold by its owners, the family of liberal politician Evaristo Pérez de Castro, to a person who has asked to remain anonymous. The new owner, through the mediation of Jorge Coll, spokesperson for the family and owner of the Colnaghi house (ancient art gallery), “will give this masterpiece on a temporary loan – nine months – to the National Prado Museum where it will remain on display. in a special individual installation from May 28 to October 2024, the month in which it will be hung in the context of the permanent exhibition,” as the art gallery reported this Monday in a statement.

The sale, for which the amount paid by the new owner is also unknown, has had the approval of the Community of Madrid, an essential requirement since the fabric, which had a starting price of 1,500 euros, is protected as an Asset of Cultural Interest by the regional government. This newspaper has confirmed that the transaction has also had the approval of the Qualification Board of the Ministry of Culture, the body dedicated, among other functions, to studying goods that can be sold outside of Spain. The painting, due to this protection, cannot leave the country and, for this reason, Coll and the new owner of the work, residing in Spain, have reached an agreement with the Prado Museum to leave the Ecce Homo in the art gallery.

With this loan, the Prado ensures that it will house the painting without having to pay a euro, Museum sources reaffirm. Negotiations between Colnaghi and the art gallery began at the end of December 2023 and were closed in January 2024, according to the same sources. The temporary loan contract has been established at nine months with the possibility of extending this period. “There is no statute of limitations date,” they point out from the Prado. Usually, the reason why this formula is chosen is to guarantee that the deposited pieces are exhibited in the rooms.

At the end of August, David conquers Goliath, by Caravaggio, one of the two paintings by the artist that this museum has, was removed from the room, for, they say in the Prado, a restoration that had been planned for years. The canvas was hung again at the end of 2023. For the moment, the museum has only explained that the new work will be exhibited individually.

The painting, initially attributed to the Ribera circle by the experts at the Ansorena auction house, where the Pérez de Castros came to sell several family works, has been kept in warehouses in Coslada, near the Madrid airport, where he remains, as EL PAÍS has learned. In these two years, experts from all over the world have passed through this ship to observe the work and try to attribute its authorship to Caravaggio. Maria Cristina Terzaghi, one of the world’s leading experts on the painter, was one of the first to assure in a scientific report that she had no doubt that it was the hand of the Italian artist.

Since July 2022, in these warehouses near the airport, a team of restorers led by the Italian expert Andrea Cipriani has been fixing the damage to the piece. Under his command have been specialists such as Claudio Falcucci and Carlo Giantomassi, another relevant restorer who participated in the work on Michelangelo’s frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Jorge Coll ruled out the Prado restoration workshop, considering that it was an interested party in the sale of the painting.

It was Miguel Falomir, director of the museum, who, during a visit to the painting with representatives of the Community of Madrid and the Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, wrote a report in 2021 in which he warned of “two important and alarming gaps.” without paint that at that time left the canvas of the painting visible in the area of ​​Christ’s face. The Prado specialists detected four “problems.” One: the “large accumulation of varnish makes it impossible to see at least 40% of the surface.” Two: there is “a large amount of repainting and retouching.” Three: “detachments of the pictorial layer that have left the fabric exposed” are observed, a “danger” that “threatens” to be reproduced in other areas of the painting. And four: the reinforcement on the back of the paint “has lost adhesion.”

At that time, in an interview with EL PAÍS, Coll assured that “the state of conservation” was “correct.” “It needs normal conservation for a baroque oil painting from four centuries ago. You have to remove varnishes, small reintegrations.” The final result of the work of Cipriani’s team can be seen at the Prado Museum.

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