Last December, Gustav Klimt's Portrait of a Lady had been discovered by chance, tucked away in an alcove, in the exterior wall of the Ricci-Oddi Gallery of Modern Art in Plaisance, Italy. The small nook remained invisible because of a thick layer of ivy. Painted in 1916-1917, the portrait was one of the centerpieces of the museum's collection, which opened in 1931, and was estimated at 60 million euros ($66.5 million).
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"It is not without emotion that I can tell you that the work is authentic," said prosecutor Ornella Chicca to the press last week. Museum officials had first announced the news last year without being able to immediately comment on its provenance, stating that the work would be subject to scientific examination.
Painted over 100 years ago, the portrait depicts the face and neck of a young woman with brown hair dressed in a colorful jacket, on an emerald green background. The theft occurred in February 1997, when the culprits stole it through the glass roof window, on which the frame had been found.
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"The painting is in excellent condition. It is strange to think that it was hidden in a wall, close to the ground behind the vegetation for 22 years," declared Jonathan Papamarengh, Head of Culture of the town hall of Plaisance, shortly after the discovery. Though the ivy that covered its site had not been cut for nearly a decade, intensive excavations had been carried out after theft and the wall was not covered with the current vegetation at the time.
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Chicca said additional tests would be done to determine on the canvas. "Once these examinations are completed, the painting will hopefully be returned to the gallery walls," she said.
Two men, who carried out the theft and were part of a larger burglary team, wrote an article to the local newspaper Libertà confessing to stealing the artwork and hiding it outside the museum four years ago, according to the Guardian. They brought it back because of the statute of limitations had expired and now they will not face jail time.
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The expert Guido Cauzzi studied the portrait under infrared and ultraviolet light, comparing the images to those taken during tests carried out in 1996. "The correspondence between the images allowed us to determine that it is indeed the painting original, "he said. The state of the painting was, according to the expert, "relatively good. It has gone through a few hardships, but only needs some routine care, nothing particularly complicated."
As for the X-ray analyses carried out in 1996, they revealed that the portrait covered another outline of a different woman.
