The picture shows Jesus Christ with his hand raised in blessing and holding a crystal orb.
Rome, Italy:
Italian police have found a 500-year-old copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi in a flat in Naples and returned it to a church that had no idea it had been stolen.
Officials said late Monday that they had arrested the owner of the 36-year-old apartment on suspicion of finding stolen goods, after the photo was found in his bedroom cupboard. .
Featuring Jesus Christ with his hand raised in blessing and holding a crystal orb, the image is part of the Doma Museum collection inside the church building of San Domenico Maggiore in Naples.
It’s a replica of Leonardo’s famous work that came in 2017 as the most expensive painting ever sold, earning $ 450 million at Christie’s auction.
But the collection has been without visitors for months due to coronavirus restrictions and no one has reported it missing.
It was not immediately clear how the police came out to detect the theft of the painting, but said it was a “very complicated job”.
“The picture was found on Saturday thanks to brilliant and diligent police action,” Naples prosecutor Giovanni Melillo said.
“No complaint was made about the matter and in fact we contacted the (church) before, who were unaware that it had disappeared, as the room where the painting has been open has not been open for three months. . “
The oil painting is believed to be by the artist Giacomo Alibrandi and dates back to the early 1500s.
Commissioned damage
After returning the picture to the church, police are now investigating how it was stolen in the first place, as there was no sign of a break-in, Melillo said.
“Anyone who took the picture wanted it, and it was clear that it was a commission theft by an organization working in the international art trade,” he said.
Video images released by police showed a blank wall inside a large space where the artwork was kept, in an alcove behind large wooden doors locked with a key.
The arrested man said he bought the picture at a flea market.
San Domenico Maggiore, which has suffered theft in the past, has many important works of art. Some, including paintings by Caravaggio, Raphael and Titian, have been moved to museums in Naples.
Leonardo’s original Salvator Mundi and his copy were exhibited together in Naples in 2015 at an exhibition organized for a visit by Pope Francis to the city.
Two years later, the Da Vinci-commissioned painting was bought at auction for $ 450 million higher by an unknown buyer, making it the most expensive work ever sold at auction.
Christie’s auction house later said the Abu Dhabi cultural department had got the job done and would be on display at the Abu Dhabi Louvre.
The painting has not been seen in public since then and its current location is unknown.
(Except for the headline, this story was not edited by NDTV staff and is published from syndicated food.)