Italy’s art squad police said Tuesday they have thwarted the potential illegal sale by a Vienna auction house of a 17th-century painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, a celebrated Baroque artist. Carabinieri police said that art merchants had allegedly described the work as being painted by a follower of Gentileschi, and not the artist herself, to fraudulently obtain export permission from Italian authorities.

Gentileschi was unusual for achieving success as a female painter in the male-dominated art world of her time. She also is a symbol of courageous women for testifying, even while being tortured, against a man who raped her in her bedroom while she was a teen.