Discovered: Two Caravaggios

Two paintings in a French church have been declared Caravaggios. “It is thought the paintings were probably bought by a French ambassador to Rome, and friend of Caravaggio. The works were kept under the organ loft in the church of Saint Anthony in Loches, until in 1999 a curator expressed an interest in a coat of arms on the works. It turned out to belong to Philippe de Bethune, a minister of France’s King Henry IV, an enthusiastic art collector who befriended Caravaggio in Rome.”