The Caravaggio “lost and found” will remain on display to the general public. The fate ofEcce Homo of Madrid, the masterpiece attributed to the Lombard genius after a long and controversial story of recognition, changes of ownership, auction sales, restorations, is not to end up locked in a vault. For him, the doors of a museum open permanently, if only to the work the certificate of “good of cultural interest” is pending, and therefore it cannot be sold or transported abroad, outside the borders of Spain. The new owner of the Caravaggio painting, which has attracted international media attention, intends to always keep it on display to the public, even beyond the nine-month loan granted to the Prado for the exhibition which opens on May 28th. A debut for Ecce Homo, which depicts Jesus with a crown of thorns before the crucifixion (dating between approximately 1605 and 1609), which has the flavor of revenge.
THE CONSTRAINT
The masterpiece of discord now officially attributed to the great Lombard painter of the seventeenth century, has an incredible history. It had appeared in Madrid in 2021 when the Ansorena auction house in Spain announced its intention to auction the piece for just 1500 euros (about 1800 dollars at the time) because it was interpreted as a “simple” work from the workshop of Spanish artist José de Ribera. When in reality it could have been worth many more obviously. Experts intervened to animate the debate. Until the regional government of the Comunidad de Madrid tied up the work to prevent it from leaving the country at auction. Now, three years later, the Prado confirms that Ecce Homo is an original work by the Italian master. The Prado experts conducted intense restoration work.
THE VALUE
Think that the new owner of ‘Ecce homo’, a foreign citizen resident in Spain, an aristocrat, who voluntarily remained anonymous, would have bought the work for a sum of around 30-35 million euros from the previous owners (a Madrid family ). According to experts, the painting could have been worth over 100 million euros if it had not been declared an “asset of cultural interest”. the latest revelations (or rather, indiscretions in this climate of mystery) come from Jorge Coll, head of Colnaghi, the art gallery that held the painting during its restoration in recent months, collaborating on the agreement for its display, starting from May 28, in the famous Madrid museum until October 2024.
THE ITALIAN EXPERTS
Among the other scholars who support the new attribution to Caravaggio, Maria Cristina Terzaghi, professor of modern art history at the University of Roma Tre, and Giuseppe Porzio, professor of art history at the University of Naples, also stand out. «The speed with which consensus was reached on the fact that the work is a Caravaggio at the time of its rediscovery – comments the Terzaghi – it was absolutely unprecedented in the critical history of the painter on which scholars have rarely agreed, at least in the last 40 years.”
HOW DID IT ARRIVE IN SPAIN?
According to Prado experts, the work (one of approximately 60 known Caravaggios in existence) was part of the royal collection of King Philip IV of Spain. During the Napoleonic invasion, the painting left the royal collection and ended up in the possession of a 19th century Madrid family. «The heirs recently decided to sell the painting to a private buyer, and this person was interested in exhibiting this very important work at the Prado“, he has declared the director of the Prado Miguel Falomi.
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