The 17th-century painting The Taking of Christ by Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Caravaggio, stolen from a Ukrainian museum in 2008, has been found in Berlin, Die Welt reported on Monday.
The masterpiece, also known as the Kiss of Judas, was stolen from the Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art in southern Ukrainian city of Odessa. The thieves intended to sell it to the German art collector.
The German newspaper said police in Germany detained three Ukrainian nationals and a Russian when they attempted to hand over the painting to the buyer.
The painting was brought to Odessa at the beginning of the 20th century. It was long believed to be a copy of a Caravaggio, but the authenticity of the work was established in 2005 while the canvas was on exhibit in Spain.
Experts estimate that the painting is worth as much as several tens of million euros.
BERLIN, June 28 (RIA Novosti)
Also of note: a Caravaggio Ipad app
Now, in a bid to make the old master even more contemporary, Italian multimedia company Scala Group International has launched an iPhone and iPad app to spread his chiaroscuro-abetted fame in the Internet age.
Called "CaravaggioMania,” the program provides video tutorials about the artist's life and key works, pop-up images accompanied by explanatory texts, and a map showing the artist's tortured route through Italy, from the Rome of his birth to the Tuscan shore where he died. Other highlights of the package include an interactive 360-degree video of Caravaggio's paintings in Rome's Galleria Borghese and a walking tour of the artist's landmarks in the city. Also included is a GPS map with Caravaggio-themed travel itineraries.
Featuring approximately 300,000 high-resolution images of artworks sourced from museums around the world, from Italy to New York's Museum of Modern Art, the app is available through Apple's iTunes store for $1.99.
And then a New A new Caravaggio Painting May Have Been Found
A new Caravaggio painting may have been found in Rome, ASNA Italian news agency said citing L'Osservatore Romano, a semi-official newspaper of the Holy See.
The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence (Martirio di San Lorenzo) belonging to the Catholic priestly order of the Jesuit has not yet been identified as a work of Caravaggio as further analyses are required before it can be attributed for certain to the Italian master.
The newspaper said, however, the painting has many hallmarks of Caravaggio works including dramatic lighting effects and the unique perspective from which the subject is seen.
It said there were similarities with other artist's paintings, such as a movement of the saint's hand or body but added that no known document mentions St. Lawrence as a subject of Caravaggio's work.
Saint Lawrence of Rome, depicted on the painting, was allegedly burned to death in 258 during a persecution of Christians initiated by the Emperor Valerian
.
Italy is marking the 400th anniversary of Caravaggio's death so churches and art galleries and museums housing Caravaggio will be open all night this weekend. The country has also held major exhibitions dedicated to the artist.
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was born in 1571 in Milan. He pioneered Baroque painting technique and was notoriously famous street brawler, who allegedly killed a man in a row and fled Rome, which much of his short and tortured career was tied to. In Rome the artist won fame and the patronage of aristocrats and cardinals.
Caravaggio mysteriously died on July 18, 1610. Last month Italian anthropologists announced they had found his remains after a year of digging up bones in Porto Ercole and conducting carbon dating, DNA testing and other analyses. Some theories into the painter's death suggest that he was killed on a isolated Tuscan beach or collapsed there due to an illness.
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