Lost Caravaggio painting found in attic in France

It is such a grisly picture, to the point that its nineteenth Century proprietors are thought to have stashed it away and disregarded it.

The Caravaggio oil painting portrayal of Judith Beheading Holofernes won’t be permitted to leave France after government authorities marked it a National Treasure.

It was painted by Italian expert Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio somewhere around 1600 and 1610, the year he died.

In April 2014, a family doing routine leak upkeep on a house in Toulouse, south west France, found the artistic creation.

It was initially thought to be a duplicate by another craftsman, however now it is accepted to have been one of two forms painted via Caravaggio himself. The other painting is in plain view at the National Gallery of Ancient Art in Rome.

The French society service said: “Export of the painting has now been banned and every effort is being made to confirm its precise origin. The painting deserves to be kept on French territory as a very important landmark Caravaggio painting.”

Eric Turquin, a craftsmanship master in Paris, said the unidentified Toulouse family were researching water harm and expected to get to a rooftop.

He said: “They broke a door which they did not have a key to. Behind the door was a painting that the owners did not know about.”

He said that one of the family’s predecessors – a fighter – had likely procured the perfect work of art while battling abroad with Napoleon Bonaparte.