News: Model for Pietà Discovered in Shop

Michelangelo’s Pietà is one of the greatest works of art ever created. It’s divine beauty is so great, that it has driven people mad and made observers weep. Ever since Laszlo Toth’s attack of the statue in 1972, during which he damaged with work with a hammer, the Pietà has been kept under bullet proof glass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City. Now, 500 years later, the model for one of the most visited pieces of art in the world may have just been found buried in an antiques shop.
 
American art collector Roy Doliner found what he claims is the 2-inch model for the sculpture eight years ago in an antiques shop in Northern Italy, where is had been languishing in a modly box for years. The sculpture was covered in layers of paint and held together with tape. Since then, he has undertaken extensive work to restore the sculpture and art historians from all over have come forward to support his claims that the model, which dates back to the 15th century, is indeed by Michelangelo’s hand.
 
Doliner has written a book about his discovery and the restoration of the model in a new book Veiled in Mystery, which came out earlier this month.