The big art history news today is that in France a painting has surfaced that is being touted as the lost Caravaggio painting of Judith Beheading Holofernes, known to have been painted while he was in Naples after fleeing Rome. The expert touting the discovery, Eric Turquin (who is also a dealer) claims that the painting was found stashed away in an attic and has since undergone two years of cleaning and close examination. The story in the Guardian points out that Caravaggio expert Nicola Spinoza supposedly supports the attribution, whereas Mina Gregori does not. There is some suggestion the painting might be by the Flemish artist Louis Finson, a painter and art dealer who worked in Naples at the same time as Caravaggio. Finson is believed to have been in possession of the lost Caravaggio of Judith and Holofernes in 1607, and he made a copy of it. As always it is hard to really tell from digital images in news stories; there are elements that look very Caravaggesque—the composition, the face of Judith—but others that give me pause, such as the very regular wrinkles on the maidservant’s face. There is now an export ban on the painting to give French museums a chance to buy it (though presumably first they will want to decide if it is actually by Caravaggio). Update: This blog post from 2013 on the artist Louis Finson is interesting. It lays out the close relationship Finson had to Caravaggio, and explains that there are clear difficulties in distinguishing between some Finson’s paintings and Caravaggio, well worth reading.

The revelations from the Panama papers continue to unfold and unsurprisingly there are stories about the shadier side of the art world. One of them is the story that Swiss authorities have seized a Modigliani that was stolen by the Nazis during WWII from Oscar Stettiner. The painting had already been the subject of restitution claims by descendants of the Stettiner but the current owners, the Nahmad family, had denied that it belonged to them. The Panama Papers have now revealed that the company it does belong to is controlled by the Nahmad family and the painting looks set to be returned to Stettiner’s descendants.

To stay with Nazi art thefts - a good read from Eve M. Kahn in the New York Times ‘Does my family own a painting looted by Nazis?’ In this article Kahn discusses a painting by Jan Steen, which sits in a  sort of limbo. It was known to have been owned by a Dutch Nazi collaborator and war profiteer, Dirk Menten, but what is not known is how he acquired it, and who may have owned it beforehand.

Dolla Merrillees was announced this week as the new director for the Powerhouse/MAAS Museum. Merrilllees has been acting director following Rose Hiscock’s departure last year and was previously the museum’s curatorial, collections and exhibitions director. The plans for the new Powerhouse museum in Parramatta were also unveiled.

Lucy Hawthorne on the Lifecycle and Deathcycle of ARIs - “I have written before on the phoenix tendencies of Artist Run Initiatives: while it’s often sad to say goodbye to an arts organisation, there’s always at least one new ARI that rises from the ashes. It might seem odd, but I see this turnover as a good thing.”

 

Plans have been unveiled by the Art Gallery of South Australia director Nick Mitzevich for a contemporary art gallery for Adelaide – a 27,000 square metre building that would become the city’s largest cultural institution, dwarfing the current gallery which is about 6500 square metres, and the Convention Centre, which covers around 15,000 square metres. Read more in the Daily Review.