Missing Gustav Klimt painting worth £50 MILLION found hidden inside gallery’s wall 23 years after ‘being stolen’ – The Sun

A HIDDEN £50million painting found in a wall of an art gallery in an Italian town is by the Austrian master Gustav Klimt, police said today.

Workers in Piacenza, in the north of the country, discovered the painting in December in a plastic bag concealed inside the wall of the Ricci Oddi Gallery where it was believed to have been stolen in 1997.

They came across a little door which revealed the masterpiece, while clearing the ivy off the outside wall.

It has been reported that the painting – of a woman with dark hair and red cheeks – could fetch around £50m if it was sold.

The mayor of Piacenza, Patrizia Barbieri, and the head of culture, Jonathan Papamarenghi, hailed the "historic" news and vowed to make the 1917 portrait of a young woman a centrepiece of the city's heritage.

A statement read: “After the joy of the find … the conflicting rumours of these days have fuelled even more suspense over a story that has mysterious aspects.”

When the painting vanished 23 years ago police said they believed thieves had used a fishing line to hook it off the wall and haul it up through an open skylight to the roof where the frame was discarded.

A skilled forgery of the painting, wrapped up and posted to a disgraced politician, was seized by authorities a month later, adding to the mystery.

When the workers found the real painting, Papamarenghi said he was impressed by its excellent condition after decades lying in a wall.

He said it was second on the list of the most valuable artworks missing in Italy, behind a work by Caravaggio stolen from a church in Sicily in 1969.

The Klimt is particularly important because shortly before its disappearance an art student realised it was painted over another work previously believed lost – a portrait of a lady that had been missing since 1912

This means it is the only "double" Klimt known to the art world.

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