A painting by Gustav Klimt stolen from an Italian museum discovered after two decades

A lost painting fixed inside a wall at an Italian museum has been found and confirmed as stolen.

A sigh of relief for the museum owner after discovering the lost artwork

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The painting measures 60 by 55 centimetres (24 in × 22 in). It depicts a portrait of a female figure, composed in an unusually lively expressionistic style. In 1996, X-ray analysis revealed that the portrait was an overpainted version of Klimt's lost work Portrait of a Young Lady (in hat and with scarf), which disappeared in 1917.The original portrait showed a woman with whom Klimt is believed to have had a love affair, but after she died suddenly, he painted over the work. The painting was believed stolen on February 22, 1997, shortly before a special exhibition was planned at the gallery, during the renovation of the building. Later the Italian police authorities discovered a high-quality forgery at Ventimigla, on the Italian border with France, in April 1997, in a package addressed to the former Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi who was hiding from the law in Hammamet, Tunisia. ° #gustavklimt #klimt #expressionism #painting #history #interestingfacts #factoftheday #art #artist #arthistory

A post shared by Gustav Klimt (@gustavklimtofficial) on Apr 11, 2018 at 12:44am PDT

It was ‘Portrait of the Lady’ crafted by Austria’s Gustav Klimt that has been discovered after two decades it has been missing from the museum. The prosecutors found out the essential details of the lost painting on Friday. As per the prosecutors, the painting was claimed to be found concealed in an external wall by gardeners at the Ricci Oddi Gallery of Modern Art in Piacenza, northeast Italy, last month.

This 55 by 65 centimeter (21 by 26 inch) exceptional piece of artwork could have an immense worth between 60 and 100 million euros ($67-111 million) but it is quite difficult in estimating the exact price of the painting as it had never been sold in the market before.

When Ornella Chicca was questioned by the reporters whether the painting is an original one or not, she replied that it is with no small emotion that she could tell them the work is authentic.

The museum officials had initially reported that they could not immediately prove whether the painting was the stolen Klimt until scientific tests were undertaken. Designed 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 went missing way back in the year of 1997 while the museum was closed for work.

It was the month of December when the gardeners of the museum were removing the ivy from a wall found a small ventilation space and discovered the painting inside, without a frame and wrapped in a black garbage bag. The ivy covering the undesired area had not been cut back for almost a decade.