Painting pulled from Madrid sale ‘a lost Caravaggio worth millions’
AN OIL painting that was due to be auctioned today in Madrid with a reserve price of €1,500 (£1,300) could be a masterpiece by Caravaggio worth tens of millions, according to art experts.
The painting, an “Ecce homo” showing a scourged Christ as he is presented to the crowd by Pontius Pilate before the Crucifixion, was listed by the Ansorena auction house as the work of a follower of José de Ribera, a 17th century Spanish artist.
But it was abruptly withdrawn from sale after experts began to speculate that it could be a long-lost work by the Italian master Caravaggio.
Spain’s culture ministry said it had imposed an export ban on the oil painting and the auction house announced its sale had been suspended to allow “experts to evaluate its provenance”.
According to the Spanish Abc newspaper, experts from Madrid’s Prado museum visited the auction house but could not gain access to the painting, prompting concerns that it had been sold to a private buyer or removed from Spain before the ban became effective.
Asked by The Daily Telegraph to confirm that the painting had not already been sold, a spokesman for the auctioneers would only say that the work had been “removed from the auction”.
According to research by the Prado, the painting could be one of two works by Caravaggio – real name Michelangelo Merisi – that was brought to Spain between 1657 and 1659 by the Count of Castrillo, a Spanish nobleman who was viceroy of Naples when southern Italy was part of the Spanish Empire. Two inventories of art from the late 17th century detail two paintings, a beheaded John the Baptist and “an Ecce homo with Pilate [and] an executioner dressing Christ with a purple cape”.
The painting that was to be auctioned shows a bearded Pilate and a dark figure standing behind Christ stretching a red cape around his shoulders. The Count of Castrillo himself described the painting as an Ecce homo “by Micael Angel Caravacho [sic]”, a creative spelling of Michelangelo Caravaggio.
“Let’s hope it is a Caravaggio,” said José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, Spain’s culture minister, adding that aside from the export ban, the Madrid regional government had been asked to declare it a protected work. “With this double lock, we are ensuring that the painting stays in Spain and that everything is done in the right way,” the minister said.
Vittorio Sgarbi, a prominent art critic and museum curator in Italy, said he was sure the painting was by Caravaggio. He said that if verified as being by the Italian master, it would be worth a great deal of money. “The price could be €100 million to €150 million (£85m-£130m) if it was sold to a private buyer and €40 million to €50 million if it was sold to the Prado,” he told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper.
Mr Sgarbi suspected the painting was withdrawn from sale “perhaps because there had been so many offers” from collectors who had cottoned on to the fact that it might be a Caravaggio.
But other experts urged caution. Nicola Spinosa, an authority on Neapolitan art of the 17th century, said: “I don’t think it’s a Caravaggio. I believe the painting is a work of high quality by a follower of Caravaggio’s style.”