by Anna Randal
A painting thought to be a lost work by Anthony van Dyck has been retrieved in Istanbul’s Topkapi neighborhood. The two businessmen, who tried to sell it for 14m lira ($4.6m) to undercover police officers, were arrested and detained by Turkish authorities. (Source)
According to the Hurriyet Newspaper, the businessmen claimed they purchased the work for $200,000 from a gang in Georgia. The work was allegedly taken from a European private collection, and before its seizure by Turkish agents, it had passed through Russia and Georgia .
The work has been deemed an original work of the prolific Flemish baroque painter by experts at Istanbul’s Museum of Painting and Sculpture. Experts of the Mimar Sinan University Fine Arts Faculty will further study it and confirm its creator.
