A painting by 17th-century Italian
master Guido Reni which was long believed to have been lost was
returned to Rome's Borghese Gallery Monday after being bought
from a private Bolognese gallery.
'A Country Dance', painted around 1602, had been shown by the
Fondoantico Gallery at a Maastricht arts and antiques fair in
March.
It was re-attributed to Reni in 2017.
The Borghese, in whose collection it had originally featured,
paid around 800,000 euros for it.
"Finding a painting that certainly came from the collection of
Cardinal Scipione Borghese
gives us extremely great satisfaction," said the iconic Rome
gallery's new director, Francesca Cappelletti, "not only because
it belonged to the collection but because we're talking about
Guido Reni, Scipione Borghese and Pope Paul V's favourite
painter".
Antiquarian Patrick Matthiessen made the reattribution to Reni
in 2017.
The work is believed to have disappeared from the collection
some time during the 18th century.
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