A Lost Rembrandt Masterpiece Has Been Found After Falling From a Wall

‘Adoration of the Magi’, 1632. Rembrandt van Rhijn (1606-1669). Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images

According to the Italian Heritage Foundation, a Rembrandt canvas painted in 1632 or 1633 called The Adoration of the Magi has been found after it accidentally fell from the wall in a home in Rome, Italy. The painting, which depicts the three Biblical wise men visiting a resting baby Jesus, was discovered in 2016 when the Roman family who reside in the aforementioned house sent the painting to be restored following its tumble from the wall. Restorer Antonella Di Francesco quickly suspected that the humble canvas may have been created by the famous painter, and on June 22nd the French Academy of the Villa Medici in Rome definitively confirmed that the painting was an original work by Rembrandt.

“During my work one of the most beautiful things that can happen during a lifetime: the sudden awareness of being in front of a work by a very great author who reveals himself to you, which comes out of its opaque zone and chooses you to be redeemed from the darkness,” Di Francesco said in a statement. “This is the moment in which we must overcome the vertigo capable of making us sink into that wonderful sense of belonging to history. It is a thrill that has no equal, which vibrates until it drags you into an unstoppable impulse of morbid curiosity. I don’t fight it and I let myself be carried away by the spell.”

Further evidence that suggests the painting is an original Rembrandt: the painting measures in at 54 by 44.5 centimeters (21.3 by 17.5 inches), and the painting also includes a rare technique used by Dutch masters in the 1630s. The Rome family who made the extraordinary discovery have decided to lend the painting to museums and galleries rather than sell it, and currently the painting is in the possession of art dealers.