The Caravaggio' painting entitled "Judith Beheading Holofernes", is presented to the press, at the Drouot auction house in Paris, Friday, June 14, 2019. The Caravaggio' "Judith Beheading Holofernes" lost in Amsterdam in 1617 has since been rediscovered in an attic in a Toulouse farmhouse in 2014. It will be put on auction in Toulouse at the end of June. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Painting attributed to Caravaggio on display before auction

June 14, 2019 - 10:42 am


Paris auction house Drouot invited visitors to see "Judith Beheading Holofernes" five years after it was found in a Toulouse home. It depicts the biblical heroine Judith beheading an Assyrian general. It's thought to have been painted in Rome around 1604-05.



"When we discovered the picture, when we discovered the attribution, we knew that as soon as we would pronounce the name of Caravaggio, there would be controversy," Turquin said in an interview. "We knew that because every single Caravaggio that was discovered since 1951, every single picture has been the object of a debate and fights."

Such controversy is "part of the artist," he added. "This is a non-consensus artist. If there were a consensus, it would be highly suspicious."


For Turquin, "the face of Judith is a signature."

"The energy that comes out of these eyes, the determination that you have in these dark eyes together with the sensuality of her shining lips, it can only belong to Caravaggio," he said Friday.

He also counseled colleagues to keep their eyes open.

"In France, we don't have garage sales ... People keep things. They stay in the same house for 100 years," he said, adding, "There are more to find. They should look harder."


Samuel Petrequin contributed.

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