The Louvre has purchased a 13th-century painting that was discovered hanging over the kitchen stove of an elderly French woman.
The painting was later banned from being exported and sold for €24 million (£21 million) at auction.
After a four-year battle to preserve it in France, the pre-Renaissance painting, which is currently among the oldest pieces in the museum’s collection, will be the focal point of an exhibition in 2025, according to the Paris museum.
Around 1280, Cimabue, a Florentine painter, painted Christ Mocked. It is thought to be one of a big diptych’s eight panels, five of which are still missing.
When the owner’s family hired an expert to check the property for anything of worth, the artwork was on its way to the trash can during a house clearance. The expert forwarded the piece to an art expert in Paris, who determined it to be a genuine Cimabue, believing it to be worth up to €400,000.
When the picture went up for sale in 2019, the Louvre wanted to win it; its estimated worth was between €4 and €6 million. The museum suffered a loss when the record €19.5 million bid—a total sale price of €24 million including fees—came down.
The painting was immediately designated a “national treasure” by France’s ministry of culture, which also temporarily banned its export. This gave the Louvre 30 months to secure the finances needed to purchase it.
Cimabue was a Florentine who passed away in Pisa. Many art historians contest this connection, arguing that he was not the mentor of the more renowned Florentine artist Giotto, who significantly outshone him.
Christ Mocked, which is slightly over 25 cm (10 in) by 20 cm, shows Jesus being made fun of prior to his crucifixion. It is painted on a poplar wood panel with a background of gold leaf.
There are only two more panels in the series that have been located: The Virgin and Child with Two Angels at the National Gallery in London, and The Flagellation of Christ, held by the Frick Collection in New York. The series, according to the National Gallery, marks “a crucial moment in the history of art,” when Italian painters began to show their themes more realistically.
Cimabue did not sign his paintings, and only a handful of his works are known to remain.
The Maestà, a considerably larger Cimabue painting, is already on display in the Louvre. The artwork, which was also created around 1280, spans over 4.3 metres high by more than 2.7 metres broad and is currently being restored. According to the museum, both Cimabues will be on display in the first half of 2025.
The culture ministry and the Louvre have not disclosed how much they spent for Christ Mocked or how the money was acquired to purchase it, other than that it entailed a “exceptional mobilisation” to promote donations from customers who were provided tax breaks.
The original owner, who was in her 90s and had transferred to a nursing facility, was unable to take advantage of the unexpected windfall since she died two days after the auction.
