Caravaggio: “The cardsharps” at the Kimbell Art Museum
AN “ANONYMOUS” PAINTING IS NOW BELIEVED TO BE A CARAVAGGIO
A year ago, Art historian and collector Denis Mahon spent $100,000 in a painting then believed to be a copy of a famous work by the great Italian Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) Recent analysis have confirmed the painting as an autograph work by the master.
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The painting is an earlier version of “The cardsharps”, a famous 1594 painting by Caravaggio currently in the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth. Mr. Mahon saw the painting in an auction catalog and linked it to the Kimbell masterwork.
One of the obvious questions is: how much is this painting worth? Caravaggio is one of the most famous and important painters in Art history, and no works by him have appeared in an auction in the last decade. Also, this work can be considered as one of his masterworks. So, $50 million? Even more than the $76 million paid for Ruben’s “Massacre of the innocents”, which is currently the record for an old master painting? Maybe. But don’t expect this painting to be a future auction’s blockbuster: Mr. Mahon plans to donate it to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.
About Caravaggio’s “The Cardsharps”
Painted around 1594, the painting shows an expensively-dressed playing cards with another boy who has a dagger handy at his side, while an older man is peering over the dupe’s shoulder and signaling to his young accomplice. It is widely regarded as one of Caravaggio’s most accomplished compositions, with a great influence in the work of Georges de La Tour. The painting was rediscovered in a European private collection in 1987, and it was later purchased by the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.
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