It’s the stuff of art-historical dreams. Over the weekend, two Italian researchers each announced the discovery of a long-lost Caravaggio painting. The first find came courtesy of historian Gianni Papi, who declared a dark portrait of a young man to be by the Baroque master.
Previously attributed to the 16th-century Tuscan school, the canvas sold at Dorotheum auction house in Vienna in 2017 for €3,810 ($4,300). Papi announced his hypothesis during a conference at the Pinacoteca Civica in Montepulciano on November 7, according to the Italian art news outlet Finestre sull’Arte. His findings will be made public when the conference proceedings are published.
