Italian Police Locate Lost Botticelli?
November 30 2023
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
Regular readers of this blog will recall Bendor's particular penchant for press photos of the Italian police posing next to recovered looted art. The Guardian have today presented us with the following example accompanied by a most curious story. The Italian police’s cultural heritage team have located a Madonna and Child purportedly by Botticelli in a private home in Naples, and have connected the painting to a work which went missing from Santa Maria delle Grazie, in the municipality of Santa Maria la Carità in Naples, over fifty years ago. The police are currently trying to establish the ownership of the painting.
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Of course, the question of whether the authorship of this very yellowed and damaged work can be substantiated is perhaps the most pertinent question on many of the minds of readers of this particular blog. Do let me know if you find a better image of the painting itself, which seems to be lacking in all of these articles.
Update - A reader has very kindly forwarded the following article which contains this slightly better image:
Well, despite the condition, it doesn't look terribly promising...
