SINGULAR DISCOVERY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 155, 21 April 1876, Page 7

SINGULAR DISCOVERY.

Art circles in Cincinnati are considerably excited over the discovery of what is probably a genuine Murillo among a lot of rubbish lately offered for sale in that city. The stuff had years ago been the property of a wealthy Cincinnati family, and was pronounced of little or no value by the auctioneer, who proceeded to knock it down to the highest bidder. Mr. Leon Van Loo, who is familiar with old pictures in the churches, palaces, and galelries of Europe, rescued from the lot a picture, and, bidding $7 for it, it was sold, to him. The picture was covered with sooty dirt and liberally splashed with whitewash. When these were lemovedand the color brought out with a fresh touch of mastic-varnish, the purchaser was delighted to find that he was in possession of a masterpiece of composition, drawing, and color, whether a copy or an original, and intrinsically worth a hundred times the sum he had paid for it. A photograph of the treasure revealed certain letters winch proved to be the initials, or rather, monogram, which Murillo, according to the best authority, gave to his work. The foreground of the composition contains a distinct group of three figures, apparently a Saint Anne, Child, Virgin, and winged cherub bearing a wreath of flowers. From a rent in the clouds above, where another cherub face appears, a flood of yellowish golden light pours down upon the group from the right, tinging everything with a rich warm glow. There is thought to be an abundance of evidence to show that if the painting is not Murillo's own work, then it is the work of some disciple of his school, who has here left a painting not unworthy of his immortal master. The history of the painting, whatever it is, will be followed up, and in a few months a most interesting question in art, and one destined to excite a deal of discussion in Europe as well as America, will have been satisfactorily settled. Should it prove a genuine Murillo, there is no doubt but that its value will rise from seven dollars to fifty thousand or more. Soult's Murillo fetched 600,000 francs at auction, and it had but a single figure, instead of, as in the paint' jug under notice, a groxip.