Artificial intelligence has concluded that a painting dismissed by Sotheby’s and the Metropolitan Museum as a copy is, in fact, by Caravaggio.
The 17th-century painter and baroque master, full name Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, is one of the most revered artists in history. Only a few dozen of his works have survived.
A new work can now be added to that list, according to scientific analysis, which has determined that “The Lute Player” – bought for Badminton House in Gloucestershire in the 18th century – is by Caravaggio, with a probability of 85.7 per cent.
“Everything over 80 per cent is very high,” said Dr Cardina Popovici, the head of Art Recognition, the Swiss company specialising in artwork authentication who carried out the study in collaboration with the University of Liverpool and other partners.
The tests, which involve artificial intelligence, showed a strong match with authenticated paintings, as reported by The Guardian.
This news will be welcomed by the art world. Caravaggio’s works are so rare that when one was discovered in 2019, it was valued at approximately £96m.
In 1969, Sotheby’s sold the Badminton Lute as a copy “after Caravaggio” for £750. It was sold again in 2001 as “circle of Caravaggio” for approximately £71,000.
It was purchased that time by Clovis Whitfield, a British art historian and gallerist who specialises in Italian old masters. Whitfield saw that the painting’s details – such as the reflection on the dew drops of the flowers – “corresponded exactly” with a description by Giovanni Baglione in his 1642 Caravaggio biography.
The Badminton Lute Player is one of three versions. There is an undisputed original in the Wildenstein collection, having been displayed at the Met from 1990 to 2013.
In 1990, Keith Christiansen, who was head of European paintings at the Met at the time, identified the Wildenstein version as the original and determined the Badminton version to be a copy.
Whitfield bought the Badminton Lute Player with Alfred Bader, a collector, to whom Christiansen wrote in 2007: “No one – certainly no modern scholar – has ever or ever would entertain the idea that your painting could be painted by Caravaggio.”
Whitfield told The Guardian: “The AI result knocks Mr Christiansen off his perch.”
The analysis not only found that the Badminton was real, but concluded that the Wildenstein was “not an authentic work” with the AI returning a “negative result”, according to Popovici.
Christiansen declined to comment when approached by The Guardian.
Whitfield and Popovici will discuss the painting in a new podcast titled Is It?, which launches on 27 September. The subject will also be explored in a feature documentary that is in development with leading art market expert Geraldine Norman.
The Badminton Lute is currently in London. Whitfield has said he would like it to go to a public collection.
