Lost Botticelli Masterpiece Valued at Over $108 Million Found in Southern Italy Home

A 15th-century painting by Sandro Botticelli, worth €100 million, or $108,640,000 U.S. dollars, was forgotten for over 50 years after disappearing from the Italian state’s art records and has been recovered from a family home near Naples. The 23” x 31” work, painted in tempera on wood, was initially displayed in a church in Santa Maria la Carità. When an earthquake damaged the church in 1982, the painting was given to a local family for safekeeping. They went on to display it in their private home for many years. For some indeterminate reason, it vanished from the Italian state’s art records, and local authorities continued to monitor the painting. However, sometime in the 1990s, this supervision inexplicably ceased.

Even though the artwork had been in the family’s possession the entire time, it was eventually included on the list of lost works maintained by the Italian Ministry of Culture. The painting depicts the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus on her lap. This painting is believed to be one of the last Botticelli produced before his death in 1510. The estimated value of the painting is €100 million—$108,640,000 U.S. dollars.

The reclaimed painting, according to art historian Peppe Di Massa, is among Botticelli’s most treasured pieces because it features a Madonna that was influenced by Simonetta Cattaneo Vespucci, the artist’s muse, who passed away at the age of 23.

The work is referenced in English author Ronald W. Lightbown’s biography of Botticelli. The painter gave the piece to Pope Sixtus IV, who subsequently gave it to the small country church in the Santa Maria la Carità municipality of Naples, hoping to curry favor with the Medici family.

Experts determined that the artwork was severely damaged, with several abrasions and chromatic changes brought on by varnish oxidation. It will now be subjected to a lengthy restoration process with the goal of allowing the public to view it at last.

There will be no criminal investigation because an official decree indicates that the family was asked to safeguard the painting.

Photographs courtesy of Carabinieri for the Protection of Cultural Heritage, Italy.

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$30 Yard Sale Purchase Worth $10 Million

It took years of international scrutiny by experts, but a $30 yard sale purchase in 2017 has been verified as a drawing by Albrecht Dürer, who died in 1528, and is regarded as the greatest German artist of the European Renaissance. Its new value is around $10 million, a pretty good return on a $30 investment.

According to Agnews Gallery, the London auction house in possession of the artwork, the drawing called “The Virgin and Child” is thought to have been completed in 1503. Boston-based art collector Clifford Schorer, a consultant to the gallery, said he stumbled on the artwork on his way to a party in Massachusetts in 2019. He had forgotten to bring a gift to the party and so took a detour to a bookstore. The bookseller told him his friend had a Dürer drawing and asked if he would look at it. Schorer agreed but held out little hope, though he was intrigued. “The Virgin and Child” artwork had been purchased at a yard sale at the home of an architect who had been gifted the piece from his art dealer father, Schorer said. When he arrived to examine the artwork weeks later, he immediately recognized its quality. Three years and 17 international flights later to meet with art experts, it was confirmed as a Dürer.

Moral of the story? Keep going to yard sales and buy something if you like it. It may not be worth $10 million … but you never know.