Estimated Michelangelo stolen from a Belgian Church
ARTinvestment.RU   15 января 2019

The painting "the Holy family" was stolen from a Church in the town of Zele, a few days before the arrival of the expert, capable to confirm or deny the authorship of Michelangelo

Saw "the hand of Michelangelo" in "the Holy family", presented 16 years ago, the Church of St. Ludger, in the town of Zele, her pastor, Jan van Raemdonck (Jan Van Raemdonck). During the five years that Radonc served in the Church, he managed to hold his own investigation and found in the collection of the English Earl of Portland, a very similar drawing by Michelangelo of the same story. He sent a number of letters to museums, but got no answers. In the end, we come to see the "Holy Family" his eyes, only agreed expert on Michelangelo Maria Forcellino. The kidnapping occurred a few days before her arrival.

Early Thursday morning, January 10 a local resident was seen near the Church of Ludger suspicious young man about 20 years. On Friday morning, the painting was not in its usual niche. Alone with this burden hardly anyone did: work mounted in a heavy wooden frame, weighs about a ton. Pastor Raemdonck, of course, stunned by the sudden loss of an alleged Michelangelo. According to him, on his conjectures about the authorship of he said no more than twenty closest people. Protection in the Church, he has not strengthened before the arrival of the expert and its final conclusion. Radonc suspects to the attackers the information could seep through the letters that he sent to museums.

the story of the kidnapping is different from other similar primarily to the fact that the authorship of the great master was never confirmed. And the time of extinction — shortly before the arrival of expert — is also very suspicious. Besides, the work appeared in the Church recently, and gave it to a former Belgian Senator. To be honest, more like a cleverly thought-out PR-кампанию: picture disappears, all the Newspapers will know about the existence of such "Michelangelo" and sharing this knowledge with readers, then picture find (and this is probably because to sell unconfirmed Michelangelo even the mythical "black market" it is hardly possible), in the Belgian town go again (but now under the scrutiny of the press), and further, even in case of negative response, attention to the town green has already attracted, tourists and fans of Michelangelo'll definitely be there to watch, and suddenly, the however, the hand of the master. So we will follow the development of this interesting story.

the Material was prepared by Maria Onuchina, AI

Sources: theguardian.com, artinvestment.ru