(7 Nov 2016) The director of the Brera Art Gallery in Milan is courting controversy for including in a new show a painting whose attribution to Caravaggio is disputed.
Critics charged the decision to display "Judith Beheading Holofernes," discovered two years ago in an attic in southern France, legitimizses its attribution to Caravaggio and would drive up the work's price were it to be put on the market.
A prominent art historian has quit the Brera's scientific committee over the decision.
The director of the National Gallery of Ancient Art of Rome, Flaminia Gennari Santori, urged caution, warning that the attribution of artistic paternity requires a long process including documents, historical and technical analysis.
However, Brera Art Gallery gallery director James Bradburne defended the display of the disputed "Judith Beheading Holofernes" as fulfilling a museum's mission to ask questions and encourage dialogue.
He says experts, not museums, have the responsibility of deciding attribution and museums have the unique ability to show works side-by-side to spark a discussion.
The six-painting exhibition runs through Feburary 5th, 2017.
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