From Michelangelo to Caravaggio, why masterpieces are coming out of the woodwork

It may not be as dramatic as a tomb raid, but the discovery of the only surviving bronzes by Michelangelo is the latest in a long line of thrilling art re-attributions

The attribution of two bronze nudes to none other than Michelangelo is one of those rare art stories that are genuinely important and authentically sensational. And like so many truly significant art history discoveries, this one does not involve digging a lost masterpiece out of a cellar or finding it in a Nazi hoard, but is instead a scholarly argument for re-attributing a work known for centuries.

A lot of the time, this kind of connoisseurship leads to the opposite: sceptical de-attribution. Paul Joannides, the art historian whose immense knowledge lends the Cambridge claim authority, put some of the final nails into the reputation of the Venetian painter Giorgione when he all but demolished the idea that Giorgione painted the Sleeping Venus, one of the icons of the Renaissance. He and others argue it is by Titian.

Related: Michelangelo's bronze panther-riders revealed after 'Renaissance whodunnit'

Related: The new Michelangelo sculptures are a sensation, but are they any good? | Jonathan Jones

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