![]() Gorky’s daughter Maro Spender had long suspected that another composition was hidden beneath The Limit, and lockdown presented the perfect opportunity to investigate further. Several decades after the Picasso painting’s creation, Armenian American artist Arshile Gorky pasted a work titled The Limit (1947) over another abstract creation now known as Untitled (Virginia Summer). The Picasso, meanwhile, sat in a Maine closet for 50 years and was likely passed down to the finder by his great-aunt, who studied art in Europe during the 1920s. ![]() ![]() Both subsequently sold for more than $200,000 each. An Ohio man preparing to sell his parents’ art collection found the Henry landscapes in the back of an old storage unit. “o realistically sculpted that it could almost be mistaken for a genuine human skull,” according to the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, the sculpture once sat on the desk of Pope Alexander VII.Ī curator's archival research identified a previously unattributed marble skull as a lost masterpiece by Bernini.įamily ties led to the rediscovery of two oil paintings by Irish impressionist Paul Henry and a work on paper by Cubist Pablo Picasso. “It’s something you expect to find in Italy,” Ruggio told Westchester magazine in September, “but it was really out of place in a church in New York.” Another Baroque masterpiece, a marble skull sculpted by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, spent almost 200 years hidden in plain sight as an unattributed work in the Dresden State Art Collection’s archaeology department. Part of a series of four paintings depicting the Holy Family, the canvas had hung in the building in relative obscurity since 1962. The painting’s owners only realized its significance after an art historian and conservator brought in to restore a separate work identified it as something “ a bit special.”Ī similar scenario unfolded during Covid-19 lockdown, with art historian Tom Ruggio discovering a long-lost work by 17th-century Baroque artist Cesare Dandini during a chance visit to the Church of the Holy Family in New Rochelle, New York. ![]() Likely created in Titian’s workshop, the work hung largely unnoticed on a church wall in Ledbury, England, for more than a century. Other Renaissance-era works rediscovered in 2021 include a pair of 16th-century portraits of Cosimo II de’ Medici and Ferdinando I de’ Medici, found beneath plaster in a storeroom at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and a forgotten painting of the Last Supper linked to Italian artist Titian. Two telltale features identified by authenticators suggest otherwise: the artist’s “A.D.” monogram and the presence of a watermark seen on more than 200 sheets of paper used by Dürer.Īttributed to Albrecht Dürer, The Virgin and Child With a Flower on a Grassy Bank, circa 1503 Now valued at an estimated $50 million, the previously unknown preparatory work had long been identified as a modern reproduction. Bought on a whim at a Massachusetts estate sale for $30, the centuries-old sketch of a mother and child turned out to be an original drawing by Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer. A prime example of a rediscovered art historical treasure went on view in London earlier this month. But many others remain hidden, tucked away in attics and basements, awaiting the day that their genius will once again be recognized. Over the course of human history, natural disasters, the ravages of time, theft and iconoclasm have destroyed countless masterpieces. Listings are bolded and organized by category. From a forgotten work by Pablo Picasso to the site of Harriet Tubman’s Maryland home to an Aztec altar, these were the most fascinating finds of 2021, as covered by Smithsonian magazine. Spanning disciplines, historical eras, geographic locations and cultures, some of the 99 items highlighted below were first unearthed years ago but only documented now, while others were identified more recently. 2021 yielded an array of intriguing finds, particularly as lockdowns lifted and researchers returned to the field. In a year dominated by disheartening news, including the Covid-19 pandemic, threats to American democracy and reminders of systemic racism, archaeological and cultural discoveries offered a welcome distraction.
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