It began with the 2014 discovery of a baroque painting, propped behind an old bed frame in the attic of a home in Toulouse, France. It will end next month in a Toulouse auction house — with a payday that could exceed $100 million, or sink to a fraction of that.
Boosters claim the work to be by 16th-century Italian master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, better known simply by his last name. But there are also high-profile experts who claim the painting may not, in fact, be by the famed artist.
Before the controversial “Judith Beheading Holofernes” hits the auction block on June 27, New Yorkers can get an up-close look for themselves. The work, which depicts the gruesome decapitation of an Assyrian general by a young woman, will be displayed at Adam Williams Fine Art on the Upper East Side from Friday through May 17. Gallerist Williams, of course, believes the painting is the real deal.
“I wouldn’t want it in my gallery unless I was 100 percent sure of its legitimacy,” he told The Post, pointing out that he is displaying the piece purely for the honor and not benefitting financially. “You see this work and know you are in the presence of something great.”
At stake for the seller, who remains undisclosed, is a fortune. Right now, it is nearly impossible to say whether or not bidders will buy into the idea that this is a real Caravaggio. The painting is expected to be auctioned without a minimum reserve, likely beginning around $35 million — still a hefty sum, but nowhere near what the price could rise to.
“I hope it won’t go for [$35 million],” said appraiser Eric Turquin. “That would be a tragedy … Potential buyers have spoken to me and I believe they are willing to spend more.”
However, Keith Christiansen, chairman of European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has noted in a report that some scholars view the painting as too “crude” to be a full-on work by the artist. He also mentioned the idea that the “picture was perhaps finished by another hand.”
Some doubters say the painting might have been completed by Caravaggio’s dealer Louis Finson, himself an artist (a painting by him sold for $212,500 on May 1).
Gianni Papi, an Italian art specialist at the University of Florence, said there are elements of the painting that make him “doubt [it is] the work of Caravaggio.”
Specifically, he questions the “animal teeth” of Holofernes, which is “strange for Caravaggio.” He finds the sword “too chiseled” to have come from the artist and also takes exception to the old lady watching the death, citing “excessive torment in the folds of her face.”
Papi said that the painting “may be a work of Finson, 1607, performed in Naples and strongly influenced and fertilized by contact with Caravaggio.”
Gallerist Williams takes offense at this: “Describing Finson as second-rate would be a compliment. He is an absolute dog of a painter.”
Making things more intriguing is that a version of “Judith” already hangs in the collection of a Naples bank — and is attributed to Finson. It’s long been believed to be a copy of a work by Caravaggio, which would have been lost for centuries. The question is whether or not the one going to auction is the original.
When the painting was shown to representatives of the Louvre, France’s famous museum, “They said it was not for them,” said Turquin. “Plus they have three of the best Caravaggios anyway.”
Turquin was among the first to examine the canvas in 2014.
“We showed it to art historians, we did X-rays and infrared. We took pigment samples to prove that the pigments are from Naples between 1600 and 1610 [where and when Caravaggio would have worked],” Turquin said. “I kept the painting a secret for two years while we did our investigation … I never doubted its authenticity.”
David M. Stone, a professor of art history at the University of Delaware who is regarded as a Caravaggio expert, believes this “Judith” is real but understands where the doubters are coming from.
“The question centers on why the weak areas look to be less than 100 percent,” Stone said, referencing the wrinkles on the old lady’s face and the head of Holofernes.
“Though I think the painting is by Caravaggio, it is possible that he … left a few areas incomplete. That would open the possibility of a second person finishing those areas.”
There is also a chance that the unusualness is by design. “Maybe he was experimenting with a different kind of face,” said Stone.
Art dealer Robert Simon has experience with mysterious, long-lost works: In 2005 he discovered a “missing” Leonardo da Vinci that later sold for $450 million.
Simon noted that very few old-master works are signed or documented, and the lack of such doesn’t scare him off with “Judith.”
“I believe that this is a Caravaggio,” he said. “And I would encourage a client to bid on it.”
But it remains to be seen whether anyone will even bid the $35 million minimum — or send the price soaring beyond the $100 million pre-sale estimate.
