A
Salvator Mundi
from Leonardo da Vinci's workshop which was on display in a church in Naples, has been found in a Neapolitan's apartment even as his disappearance went unnoticed due to the pandemic.
The stolen work - depicting a Christ “
savior of the world
” - was hung in the museum of the Basilica of San Domenico Maggiore, which is part of a famous monastic complex in the historic center of Naples.
According to the Naples prosecutor Giovanni Melillo, no theft complaint had been recorded.
"
We actually contacted the Prior who was not aware of the disappearance, because the room where the painting is kept had not been opened for three months
".
Italian museums have been open very little for ten months due to the epidemic caused by the coronavirus.
According to images released by the police, this work was nestled in a large alcove with huge wooden doors with an old key in principle kept in a safe.
The investigation is ongoing, but "
it is plausible that this is a theft sponsored by an organization dealing with international art trade
," added the prosecutor to the Neapolitan press on Monday evening.
The painting was found last Saturday at the top of a cupboard, at a 36-year-old trader who claims to have bought it in "
a flea market
".
A rifle was seized in his bedroom.
Read also: The riddle of
Salvator mundi
Alfredo Fabbrocini, who led the police operation, spoke of a “
complex
”
investigation
and expressed his “
great satisfaction at having returned such a property of such great importance to the city of Naples
”.
The Church of San Domenico Maggiore, which has suffered thefts in the past, houses a collection of important works.
Some have already been sheltered in museums in Naples, such as paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael and Titian.
A
Mundi Salvator
awarded $ 450 million
In 2017, a
Salvator Mundi
attributed to Leonardo da Vinci had been purchased for $ 450 million by the Emirati authorities, the Louvre Abu Dhabi museum announced at the time.
This 65 cm by 45 cm painting, in which Christ emerges from darkness, blessing the world with one hand while holding a transparent globe in the other, was attributed in 2010 to Leonardo da Vinci, after in-depth research still contested by some experts.
But in 2019, as France and Italy commemorated 500 years of Italian genius, the world's most expensive painting they hoped to borrow was nowhere to be found.
The work located in Naples which is inspired by it is an oil on wood, attributed to another artist of the school of the great master when he again stayed in Milan at the end of his life, at the very beginning of the 16th century. century, advances the museum of the basilica on its website.
It was probably bought in Milan by an adviser and ambassador of Charles V.
The
Salvator Mundi
attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and that of the Neapolitan Museum were exhibited together in Naples in 2015 during an exhibition organized on the occasion of a visit by Pope Francis to this city.
The iconography of
Salvator Mundi is
inspired by a representation of Christ from the Byzantine period, first taken up by Flemish painters.
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