French and Italian experts have proven that a painting bought online by French collectors this year without knowing its history is in fact a work of art by the Italian Renaissance painter and architect Raphael, dating back to his meeting with Leonardo da Vinci around the year 1505.
A collector told AFP: “When I saw the image of the work on the Internet for the first time, it immediately caught my attention. ”The collectors bought it from a London gallery for 30,000 pounds ($36,000). “When we received the painting, it was even more moving,” he recalls.
After thinking that it was a painting from the school of Leonardo da Vinci, the collector sought the expertise of Annalisa Di Maria, a member of a UNESCO team of experts in Florence, Italy, who confirmed the work’s attribution to Raphael in September.