Posted on 11/16/2023 11:31:10 AM PST by Red Badger
A painting found hanging in an elderly French woman's kitchen was found to be a long-lost panel from a polyptych by 13th-century Italian artist Cimabue. The painting, titled "Mocking of Christ," is scheduled to be auctioned Oct. 27. Photo courtesy of Acteon
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VIDEO AT LINK.................
Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A long-lost masterpiece dating back to 1280 is headed to the Louvre after it was found hanging in a French grandmother's kitchen.
"Christ Mocked," a 10-inch-by-8-inch painting by Florentine artist Cimabue, aka Cenni di Pepo, was rediscovered in 2019, when an elderly woman from the town of Compiegne decided to have it appraised.
The painting had been hanging in her kitchen for years.
The artwork was auctioned for about $26.8 million, but the French government barred it from being exported, declaring it to be a "national treasure."
Rima Abdul Malak, the French minister of culture, and Laurence des Cars, president and director of the Louvre Museum, said the painting will now have a new home as part of an exhibit at the famed Paris museum.
The duo announced that the French government had purchased the painting from the auction winner.
"Christ Mocked" and another Cimabue painting, titled "Maestà," will be displayed at the Louvre in an exhibit set to open in 2025.
With that kind of money, that French woman should be able to buy herself a new kitchen.
It makes me wonder how many other pieces out there are sitting in people’s homes - and they don’t even know about it.
I especially wonder about the art the Nazis looted during WWII. Obviously, some was destroyed in Allied aerial bombings but I can’t help wonder how many other pieces are still hidden in caves somewhere or hanging in someone’s home or sitting in at attic.
Seems like every year or so, some unknown or missing masterpiece is found.............
The French taxes probably ate it all up!...................
There’s a ton of recovered art in my office building. Guy is the grandson of some art dealer the Nazis robbed. Pretty amazing offices. I always just stare into the windows like a weirdo.
Looks like it needs a thorough cleaning...................
Well, it had 800 years of cooking grease on it!..................
amazing. for once the word ‘masterpiece’ is not an exaggeration. looking at the faces....
How can the French government classify a work of Art by a 13th Century ITALIAN artist to be a national treasure of FRANCE??? To my way of thinking, only Italy could claim it as a national treasure and should be demanding its repatriation! 😂
“Looks like it needs a thorough cleaning................... “
Hard to imagine a worse environment for a thousand year old painting :(
Italy didn’t exist as a nation in 1280.
Florence, was a city-state, so only Florence could claim it!...........
oh i remember that abomination of a ‘restoration.’ what a waste. hopefully the Louvre has a competent person.
At the current rate, French culture will not be French for much longer.
I don't know. The layers of grease, accumulating over many years, may have formed a protective coating over the surface of the painting.
At the current rate, French culture will not be cultured for much longer.......................
Lotta potential men’s hair club members.
Yes. What we here in the West refer to as "culture" and what the Islamic world calls culture are vastly different affairs.
I knew that… but none of the governments of Europe except possibly Great Britain existed in the 13th Century existed either. France did not exist as currently formed either. LOL!
So who owns the rights to claim cultural rights to this one third of a triptych? I don’t recall right now if the other two panels are in the Louvre or not. Best cultural claim is, as you say, Florence. But where was the artist in question born? Perhaps that place would have a better claim? Maybe the family who commissioned the Triptych in the first place or trace back the last known owners before it disappeared? I suspect that the current one-third owner, the woman in whose kitchen it was discovered is the only current owner and she has dispositve rights to sell it to whom and where the buy would like to take it. This cultural claim crap is ridiculous!
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