The 13th century famous painting ‘Christ Mocked’, discovered in a home and valued at over 30 billion won, will be displayed at the Louvre Museum in France.
According to the British daily The Times on the 7th (local time), the Louvre Museum recently completed the acquisition process with the owner of the painting and plans to exhibit the work starting in 2025.
Until four years ago, this painting was hanging in the kitchen of the home of a woman in her 90s in Compiègne, France. The old woman was about to throw away this painting, which had a lot of grime hanging over the hearth, but when she was advised to ‘get it appraised,’ she asked an expert to evaluate it.
At the time, the old woman said, “I thought the painting was an old sacred painting passed down in the family, so I hung it in the kitchen.”
As a result of the analysis, including infrared analysis, this painting was found to be one of 15 works completed by Italian painter Giovanni Cimabue (1240-1302) during the Renaissance period. It was ‘Christ Mocked’ painted on woodblock by Cimabue in 1280. Cimabue is considered a master who broke away from the existing Byzantine art and opened the door to Renaissance art.
A few months later, the painting was auctioned off and sold to Chilean billionaire Álvaro Sai Bendeck and his wife for 24 million euros (about 33.4 billion won), but the French government designated the painting as a national treasure in the same year and banned it from being exported abroad. banned.
In addition, the French government granted the Louvre Museum 30 months to purchase this work.
Information such as how much the Louvre spent to purchase this work and who exactly it dealt with has not been disclosed.
Laurence des Cars, director of the Louvre, said the painting “will become a major landmark in art history” and that it was a “great pleasure” for the museum to own it.
Park Tae-geun,
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.