A veteran Italian art scholar is claiming to have identified a previously unknown painting by Michelangelo at the University of Oxford.
Antonio Forcellino made international headlines last month when he backed a wealthy New York family's claim that a painting they had stored behind their sofa was by the Renaissance master.
Now he claims new research techniques applied to a piece owned by Campion Hall, an institution which allows religious scholars to study at Oxford, has revealed it to be an authentic Michelangelo.
'Crucifixion With The Madonna, St John And Two Mourning Angels' was believed to have been a work by Marcello Venusti, one of Michelangelo's contemporaries.
"You can immediately see the difference between this work and that of Venusti," Forcellino, who used infra-red techniques to study layers beneath the finished painting, told The Independent.
He writes in his new book 'The Lost Michelangelos' that "no one but Michelangelo could have painted such a masterpiece".
The hall bought the painting at a Sotheby's auction in the 1930s.
Forcellino claimed London's National Gallery continued to attribute the work to Venusti 'out of embarrassment' that they had not identified it.
