‘Lost’ Botticelli masterpiece worth $109 million found in home in southern Italy

Dec 02, 2023 1679

BY: Barbie Latza Nadeau and Jack Guy

A painting by the 15th-century master Sandro Botticelli, recorded as missing since the 1980s, has been found at a home in southern Italy. The depiction of the Virgin Mary and infant Christ was discovered in a home in the town of Gragnano, near Naples, according to the Carabinieri Cultural Heritage Protection Unit of Naples. 

The painting by the artist most famous for “The Birth of Venus” and “Primavera” is estimated by Italian authorities to be worth at least €100 million ($109 million). It was commissioned for the Roman Catholic Church in 1470. The 58- x 80-centimeter (23- x 31-inch) work, painted in tempera on wood, had hung in a church in the Neapolitan suburb of Santa Maria la Carità since the early 1900s.

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SOURCE: https://edition.cnn.com

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