The work attributed to Michelangelo is on display at an exhibition in Rome

A painting dating back to the 16th century, which may have been painted by Michelangelo, has been hanging in an American house for many years. Now she had to leave the haven and go to the art exhibition of the Renaissance, which takes place in Rome. The owner calls this event an important milestone, as he put a lot of effort into making the work recognized by the art world.

Scientists, in turn, cannot come to a single decision - whether “The Pieta with Two Angels” was written by Michelangelo or one of his contemporaries who collaborated with him.

A sixteenth-century lithograph, A Drinking with Two Angels, at Martin Kober, Buffalo, NY, USA. Since October 25, work has been on display in Rome as part of a Renaissance exhibition sponsored by the Rome Foundation. Scientists still have not come to a single conclusion whether the painting belongs to Michelangelo or his contemporaries.
AP Photo / Don Heupel.

The Rome Foundation funded the transportation of the "Michelangelo-style painting" from Buffalo to Rome, as well as the restoration, which lasted six months. The painting will complement the exposition of 170 paintings that will be exhibited from October 25 to February 12 as part of the Renaissance in Rome: Michelangelo and Raphael exhibition.

According to the owner, Martin Kober, a painting dated around 1545, which shows Mary with her arms extended over Jesus, was restored “almost in its former splendor. Being represented at an exhibition of this level and hanging next to the internationally recognized works of Michelangelo, Raphael and other major Renaissance artists is an important milestone in the history of this painting, ”says Kober.

It was this painting that became the theme of The Lost Pieta by Italian art historian Antonio Forcellino, who is sure that the author was Michelangelo. The book was published last year when Kober discovered the world’s family value and tried to achieve its recognition in the history of painting.

For many years, the picture hung in the Kober house, where it was called "Mike" in a friendly manner. Cober, who lives north of Buffalo, recalls how in childhood, playing with his friends, he got into it with a tennis ball. After that, the painting was carefully hidden in a leather portfolio, where it lay for 25 years.

Kober fully engaged in research work on the painting when he retired from the Air Force in 2002, and then suggested that Forcellino look at the lithograph. If the painting, like the Sistine Chapel and the head of David, belongs to an Italian master, its cost will be from 100 to 300 million dollars.

According to Kober, Pieta was written for Michelangelo’s girlfriend, Vittoria Colonna, when the master was about 70 years old. Then the work was transferred to the cardinal of the Catholic Church, the archbishop and the Croatian family, where he hung in different palazzos. As a gift for the wedding, she got to the German baroness, who bequeathed a picture to the daughter-in-law of the great-great-great-grandfather of Kober.

After the painting came to America in 1883, it hung for a rather short time in the Syracuse Museum, and then took part in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibition, which opened on Tuesday, for the first time since 1885 will open the work to the eyes of the general public.

Michelangelo’s specialist, William E. Wallace, after studying the painting last year, did not make a specific conclusion, but did not exclude that the work could belong to Michelangelo’s brush.

“Unfortunately, you can’t say for sure,” said Wallace, then professor of art history at the University of Washington at St. Louis. “You can conduct a scientific analysis of the paint and the surface of the panel, and all this will tell you that you are dealing with a thing dated to the 16th century.”

In any case, Wallace noted that the age of the painting and its documented history make Pieta worthy of the attention of scholars and disputes about its origin.