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H.Tschanz-Hofmann / IMAGO
"Diana and Endymion" is the name of the painting in question, it was made in 1822 by Jérôme-Martin Langlois - it shows the Roman goddess Diana looking lovingly at the beautiful Endymion.
According to the French city of Amiens, the work was lost in 1918 - and could now be hanging in pop star Madonna's premises.
At least that's what Mayor Brigitte Fouré explains in a video published on Facebook.
"Madonna, you've probably never heard of Amiens," Fouré begins.
"But there is a special connection between you and our city." The pop star probably has a painting hanging with him "that was loaned to the Museum of Amiens from the Louvre before the First World War and of which we have lost track".
During the course of the video, the mayor asked Madonna to leave the picture to the city for a while.
"You could lend us your picture." The background is, among other things, Amiens' application for the European Capital of Culture 2028. "Of course we in no way deny that you have legally acquired this work."
The video was preceded by a text in the French newspaper Le Figaro, according to which Madonna paid 1.3 million dollars at an auction in New York in 1989 for the missing painting - or one that was almost identical to it.
That cannot be clarified at the moment, as the "Guardian" reports: Madonna's picture is three centimeters smaller than what is missing in Amiens - and it is unclear whether it is the original with the signature and date removed or a copy acts.
According to the report, German troops had been shelling and bombing Amiens for 28 days, so the paintings in the museum had to be taken to safety.
When they were returned to Amiens after the war, that of Langlois was missing.
It was first listed as "untraceable since the return of the works removed in 1918," then as "destroyed by a bomb falling on the museum."
Rediscovered in a magazine
The path that the picture might have taken from the end of the First World War to New York in 1989 remains unclear.
The city first learned of its existence in 2015, when a curator from Amiens recognized it in the background of a photo of Madonna in her home published in Paris Match magazine.
It also remains unclear why the discovery of the curator in Amiens itself was apparently given little attention for more than seven years.
Mayor Fouré at least told the Guardian that she only recently learned of the painting's existence.
She further told the newspaper that the city would welcome a visit from Madonna.
"It would be amazing if she came here, but I can't imagine it happening."
Sol