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Workers discovered the painting, a portrait of
a young woman completed in 1917, when they cleared ivy off the
outside wall of the Ricci Oddi gallery in the northern city of
Piacenza, and came across a small trap door.
Inside was a plastic rubbish bag that contained the artwork.
"This is incredible," Jonathan Papamarengh, head of culture in
Piacenza town council, told Capital Radio.
Police took charge of the find and experts will now examine it
to check its authenticity.
The painting vanished in February 1997. Police said at the time
they believed thieves had used a fishing line to hook the
masterpiece off the wall and haul it up through an open skylight
to the gallery roof where the frame was discarded.
A skilled forgery of the painting, wrapped up and posted to a
disgraced politician, was seized by authorities a month later,
adding to the mystery.
Papamarengh said it was hard to believe that the original had
been hidden in the gallery wall ever since its disappearance,
saying the building had been carefully searched after the theft.
"The painting's condition is excellent. It seems strange to
believe it has been tucked away in a wall, close to the ground
and vegetation for 22 years," he added.
Papamarengh said the Klimt was second on the list of most
valuable art missing in Italy, just behind a painting by
Caravaggio stolen from a church in Sicily in 1969.
The Klimt is considered particularly important because shortly
before its disappearance an art student realized it was 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.
(Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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