Artwork by Van Dyck purchased for only $90

In 1976, art historian Christopher Wright bought the alleged copy of a portrait of the well-known painter Anthony van Dyck for just $ 90.

After receiving a visit from Colin Harrison, senior curator of European art at the Ashmolean Museum di Oxford, everything changed: impressed by the quality of the work, Harrison advised Wright to have the painting examined and restored at the London Courtauld Institute of Art Londra.

The result? Experts have stated that it could be an original work by the Flemish painter, the portrait of Isabella Clara Eugenia, ruler of the Spanish Netherlands from 1598 to 1621.

“The skillful skill leads us to tentatively propose that [it] can be attributed to Van Dyck’s laboratory and that it was completed during his lifetime and under his supervision,” reads a report by Kendall Francis and Timothy. McCall.

The work, created by Van Dyck probably between 1628 and 1632, could be worth up to $ 54,000, but Wright wants it to end up in a public institution.

A long-term loan of the work is currently underway to the Cannon Hall Museum di Barnsley, which specializes in 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings.