ROME—Italy’s art squad police said Tuesday they have thwarted the potential illegal sale by a Vienna auction house of a 17th-century painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, a celebrated Baroque artist.
Carabinieri police said that art merchants had allegedly described the work as being painted by a follower of Gentileschi, and not the artist herself, to fraudulently obtain export permission from Italian authorities.
“The painting was on the verge of being auctioned,” Carabinieri Lt. Col. Alfio Gullotta told Italian state TV in Bari, Italy, where the returned masterpiece, ”Caritas Romana” (Roman Charity) was shown to reporters.
Gentileschi’s early work, with strikingly dark sections of her canvases contrasting with her illuminated subjects, reflects influences by Baroque giant Caravaggio….