A painting that for short while was referred to as a lost Caravaggio is now at the center of a major fraud investigation in Spain.
The artwork, Ecce Homo with Two Executioners, was sold by Herennia Trillo, a Spanish art dealer, for nearly $300,000 in early 2023. But, according to the Spanish new outlet El Confidencial, experts from Madrid’s Prado Museum studied the work and quickly stripped the picture of its illustrious attribution.
The case is reported to have involved forged documents, a supposed Uffizi expert, and a gallerist accused of helping launder the proceeds. Spanish authorities are now investigating Trillo. She may have collaborated with Sara Muñoz, who allegedly posed as a Caravaggio expert from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and Madrid dealer David Badía, who is suspected of issuing false invoices to obscure Trillo’s gains.
El Confidencial broke the story on Thursday. On X, the publication posted a picture of the Ecce Homo with Two Executioners, featuring a grim-looking, sallow-faced man who appears to be wearing a thorny crown and holding a thin piece of wood, alongside a headshot of Trillo.
Purchased in December 2022 for just €16,939, the painting was resold in February 2023 for €275,000 ($297,000). The buyer was led to believe they were securing a long-lost work by the Italian Baroque master, but when independent verification was requested, Trillo refused. Instead, she dangled alternative attributions, including to the French Caravaggisti painter Valentin de Boulogne.
By summer 2023, Prado experts were on the case. They found that the painting belonged to the broader Italian Baroque tradition but had nothing to do with Caravaggio. Instead, they attributed it to an anonymous artist from the school of Annibale Carracci—Caravaggio’s stylistic rival, known for a more idealized approach to painting. With that, the work’s estimated value plummeted from nearly $300,000 to a mere $22,000.
According to El Confidencial, Trillo pressured the buyer into making a hasty purchase, claiming other investors were circling. Once the money changed hands, she allegedly refused further authentication and later attempted to send the painting to herself in Switzerland rather than hand it over to the defrauded buyer. That move prompted a formal complaint, leading the Spanish Civil Guard to raid Trillo’s home last June and seize the painting. Trillo has since denied any wrongdoing.
Authenticated Caravaggios tend to sell for far greater sums. Just last year, another Ecce Homo—which the Prado helped authenticate as a genuine Caravaggio—sold for $39 million, a meteoric rise from its initial auction estimate of $1,780.
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