A Wood Painting Of Michelangelo, Found In A New York House

An old painting, forgotten after a sofa in the living room, could get over 300 million dollars to a family from New York.  They found out that the painting, representing the Virgin Mary weeping over the crucified Jesus Christ is, in fact, a work of the famous Italian artist Michelangelo, or at least this is what an expert claims.

The piece, known to the family as “The Mike”, is an oil paintig on a wooden board and it was in the family of Lt. Col. Martin Kober for over 80 years, since his great-great-grandfather. In the 1970s the painting was hung over the family fireplace in Rochester, New York, until the kids knocked it down with a tennis ball. Than the family decided to protect it and wrapped the piece up and put it behind a sofa.

It is only 27 years later when the painting saw the light once more, when Martin Kober decided to see if it is indeed a Michelangelo masterpiece, as the family legend claimed. Kober, now aged 53, started to document himslef, made contact with several auction houses, Renaissance specialists, looking up the European archives and meeting Italian museums directors. In this way he met Antonio Forcellino, a historian and art restorer, who presumed that the piece was a copy. But then he visited Martin Kober and the painting took his breath away.

Forcellino says in his book, “The lost Pieta”, that this piece is more beautiful than the versions found in Rome and Florence and that he is convinced that the painting is a depiction of the „Pieta”, the famous sculpture from the Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome. And he found further evindece that the painting is not a copy. Forcellino examined the painting with X-rays and infrared, and the analysis showed the changes made by the artist and an unfinished piece of canvas, close to the right knee of the Madonna. The historian says that this proves that the painting can not be the copy of another piece and that in the Renaissance age no one would pay for an unfinished copy. „I am absolutely convinced that this is a Michelangelo picture”, Forcellino mentioned.

According to Forcellino’s investigations, „the Mike” could be the painting done by Michelangelo for his friend, Vittoria Colonna, sometime around 1545, near half a century after sculpintg the „Pieta”. Moreover, he discovered in the Vatican library a letter speking about such a painting given to Vittoria Colonna. Later, the work got to two cardinals-  Reginald Pole, the cousin of Henry the 8th, and Ercole Gonzaga- then to a Prusian in Dubrovnik and a German baroness. From here the painting got into the posession of a lady from the royal court, Gertrude Young, supposed to be the sister-in-law of Kober’s great-great-grandfather. She send the great-great-grandfather to look up for work in America, and he took the painting with him.

After the investigations te piece was estimated to 30 millions dollars, and the family decided to keep it in a safe, until more experts will determine wheather it is original or not.