Painting goes from $33 to $33 million after true artist unveiled
A man inspects Raphael's Madona Del Granduca at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Photo: AAP
A picture once thought to be worth £20 ($A33), hanging in a stately Scottish home, has now been found to be worth £20 million or $A33 million.
The painting, once though to be a minor work of the Italian Renaissance of little note, has been determined to be a from the celebrated Italian master Raphael.
The painting, a Madonna composition, had been obscured by discolouration, but British art historian Bendor Grosvenor spotted it recently as part of a BBC series Britain’s Lost Masterpieces, and began examining the painting further.
The picture has been dated to between 1505 and 1510 and in 1899 was valued at just $A33 – equivalent to about $A3300 in today’s money.
It was bought as a genuine Raphael, but it was later attributed to Innocenzo da Imola and is held in Aberdeen’s Haddo House.
Dr Grosvenor said: “Finding a possible Raphael is about as exciting as it gets.”
Raffaello Santi, known as Raphael, was born in 1483 and seen as the supreme painter of the High Renaissance era.
Haddo House was once home to the earls and marquesses of Aberdeen, the most famous being George Gordon, a 19th-century prime minister.
The house and its contents – including the Raphael – were given to the National Trust for Scotland in 1976.
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