Caravaggio Statement

Press statement 17 February 2004

Raymond Keaveney, Director of the National Gallery of Ireland said today (17 February 2004) that the Gallery was confident that the painting The Taking of Christ, generously placed on loan from the Jesuit Fathers, was an authentic work by Caravaggio. The attribution has been unanimously accepted by experts ever since its discovery by Sergio Benedetti, the Gallery's Head Curator and acknowledged expert on 17th century Italian art, in August 1990. Mr Benedetti carried out the primary research on the painting and published his findings in 'The Burlington Magazine' in November 1993. No major authority has questioned the attribution.

Claims for other pictures are beyond the remit of the Gallery, Mr Keaveney said, adding that the Gallery was aware of the existence of the Rome painting, now claimed as a Caravaggio, since it was published in 1951. Sergio Benedetti has proposed that the two paintings be put on display at an exhibition in Milan to which the Dublin painting is being loaned later this year.

For further information, contact Press & Communications Office
National Gallery of Ireland
Telephone (01) 66 1 5133
Email press@ngi.ie