Two decades after the century-old painting went missing, prosecutors confirmed the artwork is ‘Portrait of a Lady’ by the Austrian painter.
“It is with no small emotion that I can tell you the work is authentic,” prosecutor Ornella Chicca told reporters, referring to the painting discovered last month by gardeners inside an external wall at the Ricci Oddi Gallery of Modern Art in Piacenza.
The museum estimates the work could be worth between €60 million and €100 million.
Painted in 1916-1917, the Expressionist work depicts the face and torso of a young woman with brown hair, over an emerald green background.
The painting is considered particularly important because shortly before its disappearance an art student realised it had been painted over another work previously believed lost – a portrait of a young lady that had not been seen since 1912 – making it the only “double” Klimt known to the art world.
The painting went missing in February 1997 while the museum was closed for work.
Last December, a gardener removing ivy from a wall found a small ventilation space inside of which they discovered the painting, without a frame, wrapped in a black garbage bag.
The ivy covering the space had not been cut back for almost a decade.
Museum officials had said they could not immediately determine whether the painting was indeed the stolen Klimt until scientific tests were performed.
Chicca said further tests would determine whether the painting had been lingering inside the wall space ever since it was stolen, or whether it had been hidden there later.
Once those tests were complete, the painting will hopefully be returned to the gallery’s walls.
