Missing Nicolás Francés panel rediscovered with Google Lens Search
January 15 2026
Picture: finestresullarte.info
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
News has arrived that a missing panel, which once formed part of a set of four by Nicolás Francés (active 1424 - 1468), has been rediscovered in an American museum with the aid of a Google Lens search. The panel, which had been displayed in the Church of San Miguel de Villalpando in Spain but had been missing since 1957, was tracked down by ZamorArte Foundation in Zamora. The discovery was aided by old photographic negatives and research into the dealers who handled the picture during the later part of the 20th century. It is hoped that the set might be reunited for some future exhibition in Spain. Click on the link to read the full story.
Update - A comment from a reader:
I have to say that I was more than a little amused by the very breathless article in Finestre sull-Arte about the "rediscovery" of a Nicolás Francés panel in Springfield, Massachusetts.
While it is terrific news that the Zamorarte Foundation now knows where the panel is located, the painting was hardly lost. It is correctly identified in Springfield's galleries, where it's almost always on view, and it has been published, again correctly, in that museum's catalogues several times since they acquired it in 1964.
In fairness, the Springfield collection is less well known than those in, say, Hartford or Worcester, which are nearby, but the d'Amour / MFA is quite a good museum and has done a decent job of making the collection known over the decades. That said, their collections database is still pretty limited, so that plays a role.
