A stolen painting probably painted by Klimt found by chance 20 years later

Rome (AFP)

A painting stolen 20 years ago and whose first clues suggest that it was painted by the Austrian Gustav Klimt, was found by chance in the gardens of a museum in Piacenza (north-west) where he had was stolen, said Thursday the director of the museum.

In February 1997, when the site was closed for work, the painting entitled "Portrait of a Lady" had been stolen without leaving any trace. Two days ago, gardeners who cleaned the museum's outer wall found it by chance. In pulling ivy, they dropped a small air vent, and discovered a black garbage bag containing the painting on its frame but without frame.

Expertise is underway to authenticate the work and "it will take a little to determine the origin of the painting," said AFP Massimo Ferrari, president of The Gallery Ricci Oddi, where was exposed the work, before it is not stolen.

"What interests us the most is whether it is the original or not, more than the investigation of the flight.We have positive signals, we are optimistic," said Ferrari, which should to be summoned in the coming days by the magistrate who investigates the theft which dates from 22 years ago.

The "Portrait of a Lady", a 55 by 65 cm painting by Gustav Klimt in 1916/1917, was widely publicized in 1996 when a student of art history, Claudia Maga had helped to discover that under one portrait hid another.

For a first authentication, "more than anything else, we looked at the back of the painting because it is behind the wax and plaster seals where the stamp of the museum is affixed," explained Ferrari, pointing out that the back of a painting is "much more difficult to reconstruct (than the front), even for counterfeiters".

Mr. Ferrari hopes that the work will be authenticated as really painted by Gustav Klimt to be able to begin to expose it in the Gallery Ricci Oddi in order to "give back notoriety" to the museum. "It's important for us and for Italy," he explained.

The director estimated the work at "60 maybe 100 million euros" but he judged that it does not have a huge value, "given its characteristics" because it is a portrait style unusually expressionist, and not a composite work typical of the Austrian painter.

The Ricci Oddi Gallery is named after a wealthy collector from Piacenza who collected up to 450 paintings, most of them from the 19th century, which he later donated in 1931 to the municipality of this city 70 km from Milan. .

© 2019 AFP