Lost and found: could this be the long-lost original Quentin Massys known through many copies?

Duran, from Madrid, sold on 27 September 2018 a "Flemish School, 19th century" Lamentation, 98 by 68 cm, oil on canvas, estimated at 1,500 Euro.

It immediately caught my eye as it has all the characteristics of a good Early Netherlandish painting from the early 16th century, and looks way too good to be a 19th century copy / fake / pastiche.

I contacted another lover of these paintings, and together we went searching for more information and clues. They soon found other versions of the same composition, attributed to followers of Quentin Massys. These ranged from much reduved ones, e.g. a "Circle of Massys" at Christie's, (sold for an excessive £26,000) to much more similar ones like this "follower of" at Koller (sold for 12,000 Swiss Francs).

Comparing the work for sale with other Massys works, and the copies we found, I got convinced that this was an original ca. 1500 work, either the actual (lost) original by Massys, or a very good workshop copy. My contact pointed out one major problem though; all known Massys works are on panel, and this one was on canvas.

This probably was the reason the auction house thought it to be a 19th century copy, but close analysis of the work (not live, but through detailed images) made it much more likely that this beautiful painting had suffered the dreadful fate many similar works had suffered in the 19th century, and was transferred from panel to canvas. This damages the painted surface and destroys things like the underpainting, and of course removes many aids in actually dating the work, e.g. through dendrochronology.

The closest version we found was through the RKD,  a copy for sale at Charlton Hall Galleries in 1950: it had nearly the exact same composition right down to the details, but the execution was less precise, less convincing, especially in the face of the virgin (work for sale added below it for easy comparison).

I loved the painting, but didn't dare to believe that it was the actual original. Perhaps the hands of the virgin weren't executed with enough skill? But it seems that at least a few buyers went all the way as it sold for 110,000 Euro. Which would be escessive for a relined good copy, but for an actual original, even with these problems, would be a good buy, whether it is for a collector, a museum, or someone hoping to make a profit by bringing it to a major auction house with a better description.