Experts Confirm the Authenticity of the Stolen Klimt Painting Found Hidden in a Museum’s Wall

Experts have confirmed that a
painting discovered by gardeners hidden in the wall of an Italian
art museum is a work by Gustav Klimt. The painting, which was
stolen from the museum 24 years ago but may never have left its
grounds, will go on view after forensic teams have finished
examining it for evidence of its mysterious theft.

The work, which had been missing
since February 1997, was found on December 10 by the gardeners as
they cleared ivy from the walls of the Galleria d’Arte Moderna
Ricci Oddi in Piacenza. The canvas had been stashed in an alcove
concealed behind a metal panel.

Conservation experts report the painting
is in good condition despite its less than ideal storage
conditions. There is a scratch on the canvas that likely
occurred when the portrait was removed from its frame.

In a further twist to the story, experts were able to
authenticate the work because Klimt painted Portrait of a Lady (1917) on top of an older canvas
that also featured an elegant young woman. 

Unanswered
Questions 

The news that the museum has
recovered its Klimt painting was announced at a press conference on
Friday, January 17. “It’s with no small emotion that I can tell you
the work is authentic,” Piacenza’s prosecutor, Ornella Chicca,
told reporters as she was speaking alongside the painting, which
was guarded by two police officers, AP reports.

Amid the celebrations,
several questions remain unanswered, including the
identity of the perpetrator and whether the painting ever left the
museum’s property.

On Friday, the Italian prosecutor
said authorities were studying traces of organic material found on
the recovered canvas in the hope that it will lead them to an
answer.

A Rare Double
Portrait

Key to the verification of the
stolen artwork was the existence of stamps confirming its
exhibition history on the back of the canvas, as well as infrared
and x-ray analysis showing the existence of an earlier painting
underneath it.

In the year before the painting went
missing, an eagle-eyed art student had observed similarities
between the Ricci Oddi’s Klimt and another painting by the Austrian
master that was long thought to have been lost. Superimposing the Ricci Oddi’s portrait with a photograph of
the 1912 work reproduced in a volume of the Classici dell’Arte
Rizzoli revealed striking similarities. In both paintings, Klimt
depicted a woman holding the same pose, although the earlier
version had her wearing a hat and scarf as opposed to the more
seductive final portrait. The student’s observations turned out to
have merit and the presence of the underpainting was key to
authenticating the work.

While other artists often reused
canvases or scrapped earlier versions of paintings, this is the
only known double portrait by Klimt. The discovery adds another
layer of intrigue to an already remarkable tale.

Klimt finished the dreamy
Portrait of a Lady, the year before he died in 1918. It was
purchased in 1925 by the Italian art collector Giuseppe Ricci
Oddi. An archive photograph shows the painting hanging the
billiard’s room of Ricci Oddi’s palazzo. 

In a statement, the
museum’s president, Massimo Ferrari,
says he is “happy” about the authentication. “All of us
are very much looking forward to this ‘gift’ being the momentum
that we have been imagining for a long time and for which we are
working in the interest of the Pinacoteca Piacentina and of our
city,” the board of directors add.

The museum’s insurance premiums look
set to leap as the auction record for a Klimt portrait is north of $87 million. That was set at
Christie’s in 2006 for a 1912 portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
II. 

To keep the momentum going after
news of the unexpected discovery went viral last month, the museum
has also announced that it is planning a series of initiatives to
keep the painting in the international spotlight.

First, it
plans to organise an international conference to promote further
study of the work by “the greatest art experts” in the
world. In a
show of “Italian pride,” the museum also hopes to put the painting
on view in an exhibition along with the two other Klimt paintings
held in Italian museums in Rome and Venice.

The museum has been contacted by movie
executives and book publishers looking to adapt the incredible
story. The institution is working on a book that will reconstruct
the history of the portrait before and after it was purchased by
the museum’s founder.

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Klimt Painting Found Hidden in a Museum’s Wall appeared first
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