A portray that for brief whereas was known as a misplaced Caravaggio is now on the middle of a serious fraud investigation in Spain.
The paintings, Ecce Homo with Two Executioners, was bought by Herennia Trillo, a Spanish artwork seller, for practically $300,000 in early 2023. However, in keeping with the Spanish new outlet El Confidencial, consultants from Madrid’s Prado Museum studied the work and shortly stripped the image of its illustrious attribution.
The case is reported to have concerned solid paperwork, a supposed Uffizi knowledgeable, and a gallerist accused of serving to launder the proceeds. Spanish authorities at the moment are investigating Trillo. She could have collaborated with Sara Muñoz, who allegedly posed as a Caravaggio knowledgeable from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and Madrid seller David Badía, who’s suspected of issuing false invoices to obscure Trillo’s features.
El Confidencial broke the story on Thursday. On X, the publication posted an image of the Ecce Homo with Two Executioners, that includes a grim-looking, sallow-faced man who seems to be sporting a thorny crown and holding a skinny piece of wooden, alongside a headshot of Trillo.
Bought in December 2022 for simply €16,939, the portray was resold in February 2023 for €275,000 ($297,000). The client was led to imagine they had been securing a long-lost work by the Italian Baroque grasp, however when unbiased verification was requested, Trillo refused. As a substitute, she dangled various attributions, together with to the French Caravaggisti painter Valentin de Boulogne.
By summer time 2023, Prado consultants had been on the case. They discovered that the portray belonged to the broader Italian Baroque custom however had nothing to do with Caravaggio. As a substitute, they attributed it to an nameless artist from the college of Annibale Carracci—Caravaggio’s stylistic rival, identified for a extra idealized strategy to portray. With that, the work’s estimated worth plummeted from practically $300,000 to a mere $22,000.
In accordance with El Confidencial, Trillo pressured the customer into making a hasty buy, claiming different buyers had been circling. As soon as the cash modified palms, she allegedly refused additional authentication and later tried to ship the portray to herself in Switzerland moderately than hand it over to the defrauded purchaser. That transfer prompted a proper criticism, main the Spanish Civil Guard to raid Trillo’s residence final June and seize the portray. Trillo has since denied any wrongdoing.
Authenticated Caravaggios are inclined to promote for much better sums. Simply final yr, one other Ecce Homo—which the Prado helped authenticate as a real Caravaggio—sold for $39 million, a meteoric rise from its preliminary public sale estimate of $1,780.
