Is it a Caravaggio or a good imitation? In what could be one of France’s most exciting art discoveries for years, two paintings found in a church in the Loire Valley town of Loches have been attributed to the 16th-century Italian artist Caravaggio.
Pilgrimage of Our Lord to Emmaus,and Saint Thomas Putting his Finger on Christ’s Wound hung ignored for nearly two centuries under the organ loft in the church of Saint Anthony but have now been verified by experts. The town council said that the paintings were almost certainly two out of a batch of four known to have been bought from Caravaggio by Philippe de Bethune, a minister of the French King Henry IV.
But another expert thought the pictures were fakes. Pierre Rosenberg, former director of The Louvre museum in Paris and a 17th-century art specialist, described them as “good quality early copies”.
He added: “Let’s not dream. Caravaggio did not make copies of his own pictures.”