Forgotten Botticelli Painting Recovered from Private Home

Italian police have recovered from a home in Naples a work by Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli believed to be worth roughly $109 million.The Guardianreports that Botticelli originally gave the tempera-on-wood painting, of a Madonna and child, to Pope Sixtus IV. The pope, short of funds and hoping to gain the favor of the wealthy Medici family then investing in property around Naples, donated it to the chapel of Santa Maria delle Grazie in the Neapolitan suburb of Santa Maria la Carità. After the chapel was damaged in a 1982 earthquake and some of its contents removed ahead of a restoration, the parish entrusted the local Somma family with it.RelatedMARK BRADFORD WINS GETTY PRIZECURATORIAL TEAM ANNOUNCED FOR 59TH CARNEGIE INTERNATIONAL According to numerous sources, culture ministry officials were aware of the transfer and checked on the painting’s condition for about a decade before stopping, for reasons unknown. The work evidently hung at various times in different homes belonging to members of the Somma family, and was all but forgotten until earlier this year, when a culture ministry employee noted it on a list of missing works. The carabinieri’s art protection unit in Naples set out to track it down and, with the help of Nello D’Auria, mayor of Gragnano, where the Somma family lives, was able to retrieve the painting, which the family delivered to Mariano Nuzzo, superintendent of archaeology, fine arts, and landscape for the Naples metropolitan area.

“The painting is in very poor conservation condition, showing in fact detachments of the paint film, color falls, abrasions and chromatic alterations due to both repainting and oxidation of overpainted protective varnishes,” according to a culture ministry report. Restoration is expected to take roughly a year. In the meantime, officials will work to determine whether the work is legally the property of the Somma family, or if it will pass into the hands of the state. If the Sommas do turn out to be the legal owners, the work will likely be exhibited in a museum to ensure its safety..