Italian Art Police recovers a 600 year old painting

Italian art police has recovered a medieval painting stolen by nazi troops decades ago. The painting was taken from Tuscany from the home of a private collector in 1944.

The painting is called “Dormitio Virginis” and it is a representation of the death of the Virgin Mary. The brushwork is hundreds of years old and it was made by Andrea Di Bartolo who died in 1429. The picture was stolen from the villa of Frederick Mason Perkins near Florence and after the second World War it ended up in Canada and then UK.

“Dormition Virginis” is now on display at the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, but soon it will be returned to the Catholic diocese of Assisi, the recipient named by the Perkins family. The painting was first spotted by the Italian Art Police when a British auction house tried to auction it at a starting price of 200,000 euros.