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The painting, currently on display at the
Colnaghi Gallery in London, dates from 1607 and depicts biblical
heroine Judith beheading the Assyrian general Holofernes.
"Judith and Holofernes" was found by the owners of a house in
Toulouse in 2014 as they investigated a leak in their attic.
Barring some minor damage, art expert Eric Turquin said, the
painting remains in surprisingly good condition.
Turquin said the painting, which had been kept in the attic "for
at least 100 years", had undergone exhaustive, and initially
secret, analysis to establish its authenticity.
"After five years of analysis, work, discussions... now that we
are really sure it is a picture by Caravaggio, we put it on the
market," Turquin said.
It is likely to draw particularly strong interest among buyers
outside Europe, he said.
"This painting is very important because Caravaggio is a major
artist who speaks to our generation, and there are only 65 known
paintings by him," said Turquin, whose agency has led research
work on the painting since it was found.
"Within his oeuvre this painting is crucial... He is inventing
something new... creating dark paintings which will become the
paintings of his last years, the best, we think, the more
tragic, the more moving... the more modern," he said.
The painting is the second by Caravaggio to depict the
decapitation of the drunken Holofernes by Judith. The first,
dating from around 1600, is on display at the Barberini Palace
in Rome.
(Reporting by Sophie Royle; Writing by Gareth Jones)
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