A $66 million masterpiece that was thought to be snatched by thieves nearly 23 years ago has been found in Italy — just feet away from where it once hung.
Gustav Klimt’s “Portrait of a Lady,” which was presumed stolen in 1997, was unearthed behind a metal panel by a gardener at the Ricci-Oddi Modern Art Gallery in Piacenza, officials told the BBC on Wednesday.
The worker had been ripping ivy away from the wall Tuesday when he made the discovery.
The 5-foot-tall expressionist oil painting — which depicts a rosy-cheeked woman with an apathetic gaze — had been tucked in to a dusty black bag that the gardener first thought contained trash, according to the outlet.
Gallery director Massimo Ferrari said he’s sure that the 1916 artwork is the original, citing stamps and a wax sealing on the back of the canvas. The discovery baffled cops, who are investigating whether bandits may have hidden the painting with the aim of removing it later — and then simply never returned.
The painting went missing on Feb. 22, 1997, as gallery workers scrambled to prepare a special exhibition — sparking international headlines about a dramatic heist.
The frame of the painting was left discarded on the roof of the building near a skylight too small through which to fit the painting.
“We are not excluding the possibility that the painting was there the whole time,” art detective Roberto Riccardi, who oversees the unit investigating the case, told the UK’s Telegraph.
A group of art experts will now analyze the painting to confirm that it is, indeed, the real deal.
“It would be the best Christmas present ever,” gallery Vice President Laura Bonfanti told The Telegraph. “At first glance, based on the wax seals and stamps we saw on the back of the canvas, it appears to be the original.”
Klimt was part of a radical group of Austrian artists who featured emotionally and sexually provocative paintings of women in the early 1900s.
The original artwork portrayed a young girl from Vienna whom the artist knew personally. But when she died unexpectedly, Klimt is said to have painted over the portrait because it was too painful a reminder of her.
