A painting by Sandro Botticelli said to have been forgotten for more than 50 years after disappearing from the Italian state’s art records has been recovered from a family home near Naples.
The artwork, which dates to the 15th century and is believed to be worth about €100m, was initially housed in a church in the town of Santa Maria la Carità, before being entrusted to a local family who kept it at a private residence for generations.
For reasons that remain unclear, the painting, one of the last by the Italian renaissance master – who is best known for The Birth of Venus and Primavera – then fell off the state’s radar, to the point that many thought it had been lost altogether.
Massimiliano Croce, of the carabinieri command for the protection of cultural heritage of Naples, said on Wednesday: “The last time the authorities had inspected the private residence where the Botticelli painting was kept [was] over 50 years ago. Since then, inexplicably, the painting had been forgotten by the authorities. When, after research on these works to be inspected, we realised that a painting by Botticelli had been located in a private home for over 50 years, we decided to inspect it.”
The painting was found to be in a poor condition, with numerous abrasions and chromatic alterations caused by oxidation of varnishes. The canvas will now undergo extensive restoration work in the hope that it can finally be seen by the public.
The carabinieri are now investigating whether the painting truly belongs to the family who have been keeping it for more than a century.
“The artwork had been passed down from generation to generation among members of this family,” Croce said. “But we are evaluating whether they acquired it properly … If we were to verify that the family who owned it was not entitled to keep it then it will pass into the hands of the state. Otherwise, it could remain the property of the family but exhibited in a museum to ensure greater security.”
A painting of this kind, despite a listing in the Italian state’s works of public interest, can be owned by an individual as long as that person is able to guarantee its security, preservation and care, Croce said.
From time to time, the command for the protection of cultural heritage does inspections to verify that the care of such paintings and statues is sufficient.
Peppe Di Massa, an art historian, said the recovered painting was one of Botticelli’s most beloved works because the Madonna it depicts was inspired by Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci, the artist’s muse and – some say – lover, who died at the age of 23.
The painting, mentioned in a book about Botticelli’s life by the English author Ronald W Lightbown, was donated by the artist to Pope Sixtus IV, who then handed it over to a small rural church –Santa Maria delle Grazie, in the municipality of Santa Maria la Carità in Naples.
The pope, who was short of money at that time, gave it to a church to curry favour with the Medici family, who had acquired properties in the Neapolitan countryside to develop vineyards.
“The pope donated it to a small countryside church as a tribute to obtain economic support from the powerful Medici family to finance the completion of the Sistine Chapel during a period when the pope was struggling financially,” Di Massa told La Repubblica. “Many of us fought for this painting to be returned to the community when its traces were lost. They said it had ended up in a safety deposit box. Now we hope it can find its rightful place in a museum.”
In 2021, a small Botticelli painting entitled Young Man Holding A Roundel, from about 1475, depicting a nobleman holding a round painting of a saint was sold at Sotheby’s in New York for $92.2m, an auction record for the Renaissance master.
• This article was amended on 30 November 2023. An earlier version said Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci was Botticelli’s lover, a depiction speculated on but not known.
