[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2264166810.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tA marble bust in a Roman basilica was attributed to Michelangelo nearly 200 years after it was last associated with the Renaissance master.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe sculpture of Jesus Christ in the Basilica of Sant\u2019Agnese fuori le mura had been attributed to Michelangelo until the early 19th century, after which its origins were thought to have come from other hands. But as reported by Reuters<\/em>, \u201cItalian independent researcher Valentina Salerno\u2014a member of the Vatican committee for the celebrations marking the 500th anniversary of Michelangelo\u2019s birth\u2014has re-attributed the sculpture to the Tuscan artist.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAt a press conference announcing the news, Franco Bergamin, of the Order of Lateran Canons Regular, said, \u201cWe have lived here since 1412, and the monumental complex of Sant\u2019Agnese \u200balways holds surprises\u2014this is one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tSalerno\u2019s declaration derived from archival research into records, inventories, and correspondence related to Michelangelo\u2019s years in Rome. \u201c\u201cI am not an art historian\u2014in fact, I don\u2019t even have a university degree\u2014but the strength of \u200bmy research lies in its reliance on public archival documents,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \n\tSalerno continued: \u201cAt Michelangelo\u2019s death, every powerful ruler would have wanted to claim something of the master. But the artist carefully devised the transfer of the material in his possession so that his art could be passed on to his pupils and thus to \u200bfuture generations.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\tA document she consulted referred to a safe room for storing Michelangelo\u2019s artwork accessible only with multiple keys, and her theory is that the bust of Jesus was part of the transfer of similar works. About the reattribution, Reuters<\/em> wrote, \u201cThe data \u2060that have \u200bemerged will form the basis of a broader attribution process aimed at \u200bprogressively returning other forgotten works to Michelangelo\u2019s hand and presenting the findings to the international scholarly community.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMeanwhile, the owner of a painting in Belgium claimed a previously unattributed canvas is in fact a work by Michelangelo\u2014big if true, as only four other paintings are thought to be his. As reported by Belga News Agency, \u201cThe painting, a piet\u00e0 showing the dead Christ held by the Virgin Mary, was examined by journalists under strict secrecy at an undisclosed location in Brussels.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAfter the unattributed painting failed to sell at auction in 2020, it was acquired by its current owner, who \u201cbegan further research after discovering two monograms shaped like a stylised \u2018M\u2019 on the painting.\u201d Scientists at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, citing analysis including carbon dating, stated that the canvas was likely painted between 1520 and 1660\u2014a claim given a measure of 95.4 percent probability.\u00a0And art historian Michel Draguet, of the Universit\u00e9 libre de Bruxelles, said certain aspects of the painting suggest Michelangelo\u2019s hand, among them its sculptural composition, shading on Christ\u2019s legs, and outline techniques familiar from other works by the artist.<\/p>\n \n\tBut the painting\u2019s history is still an open question. As Belga reported, \u201cExperts stress that the attribution is not yet certain. Researchers say more work is needed to trace the painting\u2019s provenance and to have it reviewed by recognised Michelangelo specialists. By making the findings public, they hope to spark an international debate about the artwork\u2019s true origin.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/michelangelo-sculpture-reattributed-rome-1234775993\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2264166810.jpg?w=1024″] A marble bust in a Roman basilica was attributed to Michelangelo nearly 200 years after it was last associated with the Renaissance master. The sculpture of Jesus Christ in the Basilica of Sant\u2019Agnese fuori le mura had been attributed to Michelangelo until the early 19th century, after which its origins were thought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1812785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1812785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812785\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1812785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1812785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1812785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}