Judith Beheading Holofernes (around 1607), attributed to Caravaggio
Courtesy of Cabinet Turquin
Five years after its discovery in the attic of a family home near Toulouse, a painting of Judith beheading Holofernes—later attributed to Caravaggioby the Old Master specialist Eric Turquin—has sold privately ahead of a public auction planned for this Friday in the south of France. The Paris-based Turquin of Cabinet Turquin and the Toulouse-based auctioneer Marc Labarbe announced today that the dramatic, large-format painting has been sold in a private sale to a foreign collector and will leave France.
The work was estimated to sell between €100m-€150m, but bidding was to start at €30m. The price and the identity of the buyer, who might make their own announcement soon according to Eric Turquin, were not disclosed, and a confidentiality agreement was signed. But, Turquin says, the collector pledged to loan the painting to an “important museum”, meaning that such an institution would be ready to accept the experts attribution to Caravaggio.
Turquin says he is “thrilled” by the outcome of this saga, which began when the painting was allegedly found in the Toulouse attic where it had been long forgotten. The attribution divided art historians; some believe that it could be by Louis Finson, a Flemish copyist of Caravaggio who lived in the south of France after spending time in Italy. Turquin claimed that the few known works by Finson do not match the quality of the painting and that the recent restoration and analysis of the work, which was in “an exceptional state of conservatioRead More – Source
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