The painting Judith and Holofernes , attributed to Caravaggio and which was to be auctioned Thursday in Toulouse, was sold by mutual agreement to a foreign buyer, said Tuesday the auction house Labarbe. The table, "estimated from 100 to 150 million euros", will "therefore leave the French soil," said a press release from the auction house.
The agreement "is covered by a commitment of confidentiality regarding the price and the identity of the buyer," said the Toulouse house Labarbe, who had discovered the canvas in an attic in Toulouse in 2014. "We have received an offer it was impossible not to transmit to the owners of the painting.The fact that this offer comes from a collector close to a large museum convinced the seller to accept, "said in the statement the expert in French paintings, Eric Turquin, to whom the work had been submitted a few days after its discovery. "We have the duty to accept the decision of our client seller", adds auctioneer Marc Labarbe.
The authenticity of the painting divided the experts
After its discovery, the French State had classified in 2016 the web 'national treasure', preventing its sale abroad until November 2018. But the State had finally let the time elapse during which it could l 'acquire. The lack of certainty about its authenticity played a role in the state's decision not to acquire.
Because the authenticity of the painting has divided the international experts. While most of them saw the hand of Caravaggio, the great master of chiaroscuro, others expressed doubts, seeing a copy of the Flemish painter Louis Finson (1580-1617) who painted several paintings in Caravaggesque style.