An independent researcher has claimed that a marble bust of Christ in a Roman church is the work of Michelangelo, the latest purported attribution to the Renaissance master who remains one of the most imitated artists in history.
The unverified claim by Valentina Salerno has unsettled Renaissance scholars, especially after a recent sketch of a foot attributed to Michelangelo — though disputed by some as a copy — fetched $27.2 million at a Christie’s auction.
Given the stakes — and Salerno’s suggestion that several other works may also be attributed to Michelangelo based on her documentary research — many leading experts have declined to comment.
Salerno published her theory on the commercial website academia.edu, a non-peer-reviewed social networking platform used by academics, and announced the first “rediscovery” at a news conference on Wednesday.
The claims have drawn more attention than usual, partly because the Vatican appeared initially interested in them. Friday marks the 550th anniversary of Michelangelo’s birth.
Italy’s Culture Ministry was invited to participate in Salerno’s news conference but did not attend, said the abbot of the order that runs the church, the Rev. Franco Bergamin. The Carabinieri’s art squad declined to comment on the authenticity of the statue but confirmed it was being protected.
A laminated sign now hangs beside the sculpture: “Alarm armed.”
“We hope that this asset, which belongs to our cultural heritage regardless of whether it can be attributed to Michelangelo Buonarroti or not, is part of the national heritage that we are responsible for defending,” said Lt. Col. Paolo Salvatori.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, who lived from 1475 to 1564, created some of the most celebrated works of the Renaissance, including the statue of David in Florence, the Pieta in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel ceiling and “The Last Judgment” fresco behind the chapel’s altar.
Salerno now says she has identified another work: a bust of Christ in the Basilica of Sant’Agnese Fuori le Mura, which Italy’s Culture Ministry lists as an anonymous work from the Roman school of the 16th century.
She is not the first to suggest such an attribution. In 1996, Michelangelo expert William Wallace wrote in ArtNews about the long history of wrongly attributing works to the artist. Wallace cited the 19th-century French writer Stendhal, who wrote after visiting the Sant’Agnese church: “We noticed a head of the saviour which I should swear is by Michelangelo.”
Salerno argues that several documents produced in the centuries following Michelangelo’s death attributed the work to the artist. She suggests the sculpture was modelled on Michelangelo’s close friend Tomaso de’ Cavalieri and may have been part of the artistic legacy the master left to friends and students — a conclusion she reached on examining wills, inventories and notarised documents preserved in church and state archives, as well as records of Roman confraternities linked to Michelangelo and his pupils.
Her research also caught the attention of Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, who oversees St. Peter’s Basilica. He appointed Salerno and her mentor to a scientific committee formed in 2025 to discuss a possible Vatican exhibition marking Michelangelo’s anniversary.
So far, however, little has emerged from the committee’s work, and its members have either downplayed the significance of Salerno’s findings or declined to discuss them publicly.
The Associated Press