Italian Police Recover Titian Painting Missing for Almost 20 Years
- May 24, 2022 21:44
A missing 16th-century painting by Renaissance master Titian has been found by a specialized art crimes unit of Italy's Carabinieri. Dating from 1512, the portrait bust has now been returned to the Italian state.
Gentiluomo con berretto nero (Portrait of a Man with a Beret) is valued at about $7 million, and its been missing since 2004. Details of the work's ownership and history were not immediately given. A tip led the Turin branch of Italy's Cultural Heritage Protection Unit to a restoration studio in the Asti area of Piedmont, in northwestern Italy, where the piece was confiscated and later restituted in a May 19 ceremony. Two Swiss citizens are currently under investigation, according to reports.
Not everyone agrees that the recovered work is by Titian. Renaissance art scholar Andrea Donati wrote in a statement that the attribution is “sensationally wrong."
100x100_c.jpg "TEFAF Maastricht")
![Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), After Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) (Italian [Venetian], c. 1488–1576), Rape of Europa, 1628–29. Oil on canvas, 71 7/8 x 79 3/8 in.](/images/c/e2/2e/Jan20_Rape_of_Europa100x100_c.jpg "Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), After Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) (Italian [Venetian], c. 1488–1576), Rape of Europa, 1628–29. Oil on canvas, 71 7/8 x 79 3/8 in.")
