A missing 16th-century painting by Renaissance master Titian has been found by a specialized art crimes unit of Italy's Carabinieri. Dating from 1512, the portrait bust has now been returned to the Italian state.
Gentiluomo con berretto nero (Portrait of a Man with a Beret) is valued at about $7 million, and its been missing since 2004. Details of the work's ownership and history were not immediately given. A tip led the Turin branch of Italy's Cultural Heritage Protection Unit to a restoration studio in the Asti area of Piedmont, in northwestern Italy, where the piece was confiscated and later restituted in a May 19 ceremony. Two Swiss citizens are currently under investigation, according to reports.
Not everyone agrees that the recovered work is by Titian. Renaissance art scholar Andrea Donati wrote in a statement that the attribution is “sensationally wrong."