AI Claims to Authenticate Caravaggio Painting, Challenging Art Historical Consensus

In a groundbreaking assertion that could reshape the world of art authentication, a Swiss AI research firm named Art Recognition claims to have usurped decades of expertise from established art historians. The company argues that a painting long considered a copy of a Caravaggio work is, in reality, an authentic piece by the Italian Baroque master.

The painting in question, titled The Lute Player, which was once a part of the Badminton Estate collection in Gloucestershire, has been evaluated by the company’s AI analysis. This analysis concluded with an impressive 85.7% confidence level that the artwork is an original Caravaggio, a claim reported by the Guardian on September 27, 2025. Art Recognition asserts on its website that its AI can verify the authenticity of artworks within days using only a photograph. Their catalog of authenticated pieces includes works by renowned artists such as Raphael, Vincent van Gogh, and Anthony Van Dyck, achieved in conjunction with various academic institutions.

“A confidence level of over 80% is quite significant,” remarked Carina Popovici, the co-founder and CEO of Art Recognition, emphasizing the AI’s high accuracy rate.

This revelation is particularly compelling considering that very few of Caravaggio’s works are believed to have survived. The artist, famed for his dramatic use of light and shadow as well as his tumultuous lifestyle, passed away at the young age of 38 in 1610. The Lute Player is one of three existing versions depicting a young boy playing a lute at a marble table adorned with flowers. The original is housed at the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, while the Wildenstein Collection in New York holds the second version, both created around 1596.

The version at the State Hermitage Museum is widely recognized as an authentic Caravaggio, while the Wildenstein version has faced skepticism regarding its authenticity, notably from lute maker and Lute Society President David Van Edwards.

From 1990 to 2013, the Wildenstein painting went on an extended loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Curator Keith Christiansen declared the artwork’s authorship and provenance “beyond any doubt” in the exhibition catalogue for the 1990 show titled A Caravaggio Rediscovered: The Lute Player. The museum traced the painting’s lineage back to Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, a key patron of Caravaggio, labeling the painting from Badminton Estate as merely a copy “after Caravaggio.”

Sotheby’s has consistently categorized the Badminton painting as a copy. At an auction in 2001, they speculated that it might originate from 17th-century artist Carlo Magnone, an apprentice of Andrea Sacchi. The painting sold at the time for £71,000, which is equivalent to roughly $129,883 today.

The buyer, British art historian Clovis Whitfield, asserted that the work aligned with a detailed description in Giovanni Baglione’s 1642 biography of Caravaggio. Whitfield noted specific observations, including the reflection of dew drops on the flowers, which Baglione described in his text.

However, correspondence obtained by the Guardian shows that Christiansen stated in 2007 that no modern scholar would consider the painting an authentic Caravaggio.

In a statement issued to Hyperallergic, Sotheby’s maintained their stance on the painting, asserting its attribution to Caravaggio’s circle rather than the master himself. They further expressed their commitment to advancing the study of paintings through scientific innovations but find no reason to reconsider their previous cataloguing.

As the debate rages on, Art Recognition and the Metropolitan Museum of Art have yet to respond to inquiries seeking further clarification.