The thorny issue is now up to the experts.
The Spanish government blocked Thursday, a few hours before the auction, the sale of a painting that could be signed by Caravaggio, the Italian master of chiaroscuro.
This
Crowning with Thorns,
estimated at just 1,500 euros and considered to be the work of a painter from the school of José de Ribera, has been declared "
inexportable
" and will not be able to leave Spain, "
by measure of precaution,
”government sources told AFP.
Read also: Caravaggio's masterpieces find their audience at the Borghese Gallery in Rome
The decision was made on the basis of a report from the Prado Museum highlighting “
sufficient documented and stylistic evidence
” to consider the work to be by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, says Caravaggio.
Contacted by AFP, the Ansorena auction house, which was in charge of the auctions, confirmed the withdrawal of the painting from the sale.
Given the "
rapidity of events
", it will now be necessary to carry out an "in-
depth
"
technical and scientific
study in
order to determine, "
during an academic debate, whether attribution to Caravaggio is really possible
", stressed again. government sources.
"
We will see if it is a Caravaggio
", confirmed, during a visit to a contemporary art fair in Madrid, the Spanish Minister of Culture José Manuel Rodriguez Uribes.
An academic debate will decide
Caravaggio specialist, Maria Cristina Terzaghi, professor of modern art history at the University of Rome III, expressed doubts about the author of this
Ecce Homo
and indicated that it could be a canvas by the Italian master (1571-1610).
"
It's him,
" she assured in the columns of the Italian newspaper
La Repubblica
.
“
The purple cloak with which Christ is dressed has the same value as the red of the Salome (with the head of Saint John the Baptist) of the Prado in Madrid
”, of Caravaggio, according to her.
“
This work has a deep link with the paintings made
” by Caravaggio “
at the start of his stay in Neapolitan
”, she said.
The Pontius Pilate in the foreground also recalls Saint Peter's martyr of
Our Lady of the Rosary,
visible at the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna.
Read also: A priest from Sicily recounts the theft
The Nativity
of Caravaggio by Cosa Nostra
Caravaggio, the Italian daily recalls, had painted in Rome in 1605 an
Ecce Homo
for Cardinal Massimo Massimi.
A painting on the same theme, the description of which corresponds to the painting whose sale was blocked, was inventoried in 1631 in the collection of Juan de Lezcano, Spanish Ambassador to the Holy See, and was in 1657 in Naples, in the collection of García de Avellaneda y Haro, Count of Castrillo and Viceroy of Naples.
The
Salome
, which has been part of the Spanish royal property since 1666 and can be seen at the Prado, also belonged to the collection of the viceroy.
The two paintings could therefore have left Italy for Spain with their owner in 1659.
Another canvas discovered in an attic in Toulouse, France, and attributed by experts to Caravaggio, has caused much ink to flow in recent years.
Bidding for 30 million euros and estimated at 100 to 150 million,
Judith and Holofernes
had been sold in June 2019 to a foreign buyer, 48 hours before its auction, which had therefore been suspended.
After its discovery in 2014, this painting was classified as a national treasure by the French State in order to prevent its sale abroad too.
But the lack of certainty about its authenticity, which divided the experts, and its value had finally played in the decision of the State not to acquire it.
A few days after the sale, the buyer had been identified by the media as an American art collector close to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.