Painting - the latest developments. Photowire February 03, 2012

The very first (supposedly) copy of Mona Lisa is presented to the public at the Prado Museum in Madrid. This canvas was in the Prado collection for many years, but it was previously believed that this copy is one of many made after the death of the artist. However, the results of recent studies of hidden paint layers gave reason to believe that this work was written directly from the original under the guidance of Leonardo, one of his main students - Francesco Melzi. This makes this copy the earliest ever found. Some experts believe that, given the circumstances in which this replica appeared, one can advance in understanding how the model looked, because this is its alternative image. In 2012, the painting will be delivered to Paris for a new study by the experts of the Louvre, and before that, Prado plans to put it in his main exhibition.

The Staedel Museum acquired one of Raphael’s most significant works - a portrait of Pope Julius II. There are other versions of this work created by Raphael, the most famous of which are in the British National Gallery in London and in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Photo: EPA / ANDREAS ARNOLD

In the photo “Portrait of a young lady with fruits” and “Portrait of a young lady with a red bow on her head” - these works by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo are exhibited for the first time at the Fundacion Juan March in Madrid as part of the exhibition “Giandomenico Tiepolo (1727-1804), ten fantasy portraits” (Gendomenico Tiepolo, 10 fantastic portraits). Giovanni Domenico and his brother Lorenzo are the sons of the great Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.

Photo: EPA / JUANJO MARTIN

This monumental canvas is exhibited in Europe for the second time. Photo taken at the Van Gogh and Gauguin Travels exhibition, which takes place at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa. The exhibition will run until the beginning of April, it collected many masterpieces of Van Gogh, Turner, Rothko, Hopper, Monet and Kandinsky. The name of the picture by Paul Gauguin in the photo is “Where did we come from? What do we have? Where are we going? ”(“ Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? ”)

Photo: EPA / LUCA ZENNARO

The photo shows the process of cleaning the canvas "The lost paradise" (The lost paradise), which the German artist Franz von Stuck (Franz von Stuck) wrote in 1897. The painting is in the Dresden art gallery "Albertinum". Museum employees must finish cleaning the exposition today.

Photo: EPA / MATTHIAS HIEKEL

60 years after the end of the Great Patriotic War, Indiana State University (USA) returned to the Foundation of Prussian Palaces and Gardens a 15th-century painting “The Flagellation of Christ”. The painting, which was once part of the altar, disappeared from the Grunewald Museum seized by Russian and British soldiers in the summer of 1945. Later, the canvas was sold several times and settled at the Indiana University Museum in Bloomington. In a symbolic photo with a reproduction of the returned painting: Hartmut Dorgerloh, director of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation; Michael A. McRobbien, president of Indiana University; US Ambassador to Germany Philip D. Murphy at an official restitution ceremony at the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin.

AP Photo / Markus Schreiber

In November 2011, the Prado Museum in Madrid opened the Hermitage in the Prado exhibition. The opening ceremony was attended by the Spanish Queen Sofia and other officials. To the left of the Queen of Spain is Georgy Vadimovich Vilinbakhov, Deputy Director of the State Museum of the Hermitage, Chairman of the Heraldic Council under the President of the Russian Federation. The exposition is open until March 25, 2012.

Photo: EPA / BALLESTEROS

The Horse’s Head (Tete de Cheval, 1962) Pablo Picasso returned to the Sprengel Museum in Hanover. About 4 years ago, two of Picasso’s works were stolen in Switzerland.

Photo: EPA / JOCHEN LUEBKE

Cuban President Raul Castro gives Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez a present - a picture of a yacht from the Granma expedition that marked the beginning of the Cuban revolution in 1956. Photo taken during the Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean Countries.

AP Photo / Miraflores Presidential Office

The director of the Pushkin Museum, Irina Antonova, tells Vladimir Putin about the exposition of Caravaggio’s works in Moscow.

AP Photo / RIA Novosti, Yana Lapikova