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Looking for art in all the wrong places.
When homeowners find a misplaced painting and bring it in for restoration, they discover a shocking secret. (Run time: 3-1/2 minutes)
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Transcript:
CLINTON
Oh, hi there. Clinton here. And here’s today’s odd news story.
If you want proof that things are the same no matter where you live, look no farther than this story that comes to us from Italy.
Rembrandt’s “The Adoration of the Magi” was painted by the artist in the early 1630’s. And was consider to be one of the master’s great paintings. Great lost painting, that is. Until 2016. That’s when the owners of a country home in Rome province found it after it had fallen off the wall of their villa. My guess is it fell behind the couch and ended up spending the next few years hanging out with dust bunnies, biscotti crumbs and one or two euro coins. Kinda like what happened to your TV remote last week.
The painting, that the owners believed was a copy, was sent to art restorer Antonella Di Francesco for repairs. Di Francesco is rumored to have apprenticed by restoring such masterpieces as the Kramer, Washington crossing the Delaware on a 2005 Honda Jet Ski and Dogs sitting around a table playing Settlers of Katan.
Even though the painting had been darkened by old varnish, it only took a little bit of cleaning before Di Francesco realized it was the work of the great Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. Pretty good, since it could have been easy to mistake if for the work of the famed Dutch accessories store Rembrandt While-You-Wait. Timeless masterpieces in an hour. Guaranteed. Caution, wet paint.
But lets dog ear that for now.
In June, the French Academy of the Villa Medici in Rome confirmed that the painting was indeed an original at the symposium “Rembrandt: Identifying the Prototype, Seeing the Invisible,” Rembrandt used to paint invisible paintings? Restoring those must be tricky.
The Roman family that owns the painting could sell the work, which is valued a somewhere between $80 and $240 million dollars. Instead, they plan to lend it to museums and galleries for public viewing. At least that was the plan. The painting seems to have gone missing again. Right around the same time the family discovered they couldn’t find the the controller for their playstation.
But for now, that’s it, we’re done, done, done, done, done. Bye bye.