MADRID (AP) — Spain’s National Prado Museum confirmed Monday that a painting set to be auctioned in Madrid in 2021 is actually a work by Italian baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio that was considered lost. The work will be unveiled to the public for the first time at the museum later this month.
The Prado said in a statement on Monday that the work titled “Ecce Homo” (Latin for Behold the Man) will be displayed from May 27 to October in a special one-piece exhibition following an agreement with its new owner, that has not been identified.
“Since its reappearance at auction three years ago, Ecce Homo has represented one of the greatest discoveries in art history,” the museum said.
“Painted by the great Italian artist around 1605-09 and which was part of the private collection of Philip IV of Spain, it is one of approximately only 60 known works by Caravaggio that exist, which gives it an extraordinary value. ”Prado added.
In April 2022, Spanish authorities stopped an auction of the work, which was attributed to a disciple of a 17th-century Spanish painter, José de Ribera. It was also banned from being exported after the museum alerted the government that it could be a Caravaggio.
The painting was going to be auctioned with a starting price of 1,500 euros ($1,600).
The value of an authentic Caravaggio could reach tens of millions of euros (dollars), if not more.
The director of the Prado Museum, Miguel Falomir, said that since then the owners carried out studies and proceeded to restore the painting, which led to the discovery “that it is, in fact, a work by Caravaggio and a work that “It arrived in Spain in the 17th century.”
He said that since the 19th century it had been in the hands of a Madrid family who had recently sold it to an individual who wanted the public presentation to take place at the Prado Museum.
“For our part, nothing is happier than to be able to actually be the stage where this new, unpublished work by Caravaggio is shown to the public and critics,” Falomir said in a video statement released by the museum.
The oil on canvas work represents the biblical passage of Ecce Homo, in which Jesus Christ is presented to a crowd before being crucified. It measures 111 by 86 centimeters (44 by 34 inches).
Although it is now owned by a private individual, the painting will not be able to leave Spain without permission from the government.
The Prado said that, as of April 2021, the work is in the custody of the Colnaghi art gallery in collaboration with experts. The painting was restored by specialist Andrea Cipriani and his team under the supervision of experts from the Community of Madrid.
