Thursday 14 April 2016

When the "Italian" painting you put on the cover of your catalogue is a copy after Murillo...

Lindsay Burns, from the UK, sells on 19 April 2016 an "Italian School, 17th/18th century" Madonna and Child, a large (152 by 102) work estimated at £500 to £800. They even used it as the cover of their catalogue.

It is a beautiful work, but it is a copy of a famous work by Murillo of nearly the same dimensions, now in the Palazzo Pitti. The copy is very good (you can see a much larger picture by right-clicking the image), only the eyes of the child are a bit off-putting. The work is in such a good condition that I wonder whether it is well preserved, well restored, or, well, brand new. I see no reason to believe it is Italian though.

If it is old, then it should be worth more than the come-and-get-me estimate, a few thousand pounds probably; but I don't get why an auction house would use this work as the cover of their catalogue and fail to recognise it for what it is...


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