Art: "Caravaggio and the Experts: Science v. Connoisseurs"
From Art Market Monitor:
It has been a busy week for Caravaggio experts. A long-simmering
court case involving the Card Sharps, above, is finally reaching court
in London just as a connoisseur is claiming to have found the true
original to the painters Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy, according to The
Guardian:
Mina Gregori, 90, president of the Roberto Longhi
foundation of art history studies in Florence and author of several
books on the baroque painter, said she was 100% sure she had found the
original Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy.
“I have become a connoisseur,” she said. “And I know a Caravaggio when I see one.”
A number of elements had combined to give her complete certainty, she
said, that the oil on canvas she was presented with this year was the
real thing.
There are several different versions of the Mary Magdalene in
Ecstasy, and until now the one thought most likely by art historians to
be the 1606 original was lying in a private collection in Rome....
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