Fake Caravaggio Sold for €275.000: Spanish Art Dealer Investigated

A painting purported to be a “newly discovered” Caravaggio masterpiece has been revealed to be a fake, sparking a criminal investigation into fraud against a Madrid collector.

The work, entitled “Ecce Homo con due boia”, had been sold for 275.000 euros by the gallery owner Herennia Trillo, now under investigation by the Spanish Guardia Civil.

The story

• The work was purchased at auction in December 2022 for just 16.939 euros.
• In February 2023, gallery owner Herennia Trillo sold it to a businessman and collector for 275.000 euros, attributing it to Caravaggio.
• Experts from the Prado Museum in Madrid, when later consulted, declared that the painting was a fake, the work of an anonymous artist and of “not particularly refined workmanship”, with an estimated value of no more than 22.000 euros.

The investigations

• The Spanish Guardia Civil is investigating Herennia Trillo, suspected of having collaborated with Sara Muñoz, who pretended to be a Caravaggio expert from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
• Madrid gallery owner David Badía is also involved in the investigation.
• The experts at the Prado, together with the art historian Giuseppe Porzio, have attributed the work to an “anonymous Emilian artist from the first half of the 17th century”, categorically excluding the hand of Caravaggio.

The accusations

• Trillo is accused of pressuring the buyer into a hasty purchase, then refusing to have the painting analyzed by an independent expert.
• The gallery owner later admitted the possibility that it was not a Caravaggio, suggesting alternative attributions, including that of Valentin de Bolougne.
• The gallery owner was trying to ship the painting to Switzerland.

The Prado precedent

• In 2021, the Prado Museum played a decisive role in authenticating another painting, “Ecce Homo,” correctly attributing it to Caravaggio.
• The aforementioned painting was sold for 36 million euros.

The evidence collected by the Prado will now be examined by the Madrid Court.

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