The old woman walked the same path every day for decades. He crossed the living room and followed the hallway that led to the kitchen of his house in Compiègne, a city in northern France. I didn't realize that these steps were worth 24.1 million euros. The secret? An inconspicuous tablet, similar to an icon, about 20 × 20 centimeters hung near the pots. This work, painted in tempera, depicts Christ Mocked by Cimabue (1272–1302). It represents the transition from icon to painting. Art history. A very rare work by the Florentine author, belonging to a group of which only two works are known worldwide. Distributed between the Frick Collection (New York) and the National Gallery (London). The French state has declared the tablet a national treasure and it is now part of the Louvre. Its discoverer is the dealer Eric Turpin. Famous because in 2014 he found a painting (Judith and Holofernes) in a French attic that was – with great doubt – attributed to Caravaggio. Despite everything, it was bought by American hedge fund manager and billionaire Tomilson Hill (the price was never revealed, although there was talk of $30 million).
Twilight is falling on this era of sleepers: pieces misattributed or unattributed. Called sleepers in art parlance, they have been an essential source of revenue for a market that barely reaches $1 billion a year and whose value has fallen 37% since 2013. Jordi Coll – responsible for Caravaggio's Ecce Homo, which appeared in a Madrid auction – has stopped waking her up. “The competition with new technologies seems endless; it's not worth it. The future lies in private sales,” he reflects. Countless programs on smartphones now warn about sources, current prices or the like. Technology replaces looks. And collectors know the gallery owner’s “real” acquisition costs. It's like playing poker with your cards face up. “The Internet makes it possible for anyone to discover sleepers,” says Eric Turpin. When it comes to new applications, it's difficult for great work to go unnoticed. On the other hand. The speed of procurement of pieces is increasing and competition between dealers and collectors is also increasing. “And of course these sleepers are of interest, more or less important, dictated by fashion and capable of attracting attention, often for advertising purposes. Anything that doesn't fall into this category can remain dormant until the next change in taste,” criticizes Giuseppe Porzio, professor at the University of Naples.
The competition has never been so strong and the search has never been so easy. “It cannot be denied: more and more competitors are appearing. But there are sleepers, there is not enough money to buy them,” says gallery owner Nicolás Cortés. He still believes in ignorance. Pure paradox. “Neither the auction houses nor the experts know much,” he defends. Maybe because he discovered oil paintings by Zurbarán, Maíno, Ribera, Goya, Artemisia Gentileschi, Orazio Gentileschi or Caracciolo. He maintains the impossibility of achieving excellence in a profession without effort. “I didn’t use any search tools or applications to find the Salvator Mundi,” reveals Robert Simon, one of the discoverers (along with Alexander Parish) of the tablet now attributed to Leonado da Vinci. “The important thing is to have the knowledge and visual memory necessary to recognize an artist's style among unfamiliar works.” There is a war between the old task of intuition and the new task of illuminating a screen .
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