A supposedly lost painting by 16th century Dutch artist Hieronymus Bosch has been found to be in the possession of an art museum in the US. The painting, titled The Temptation Of St Anthony, was acquired by the Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, in the 1930s.
The art work was long thought to have been created by Bosch's pupil but experts at Bosch Research and Conservation Project (BRCP) have now attributed it to the Renaissance artist himself, the museum said.
There are only 25 recognised paintings by Bosch in the world. The newly found painting, an oil on panel (oak) piece, is a "significant addition to the small body of work produced by Hieronymus Bosch," said BRCP.
Researchers of the project recognised the panel as one of Bosch's works following an extensive forensic examination. The project is aimed at cataloguing all the works of Bosch before his 500th death anniversary, which falls in August 2016.
"The interest of the BRCP team was piqued when they saw the painting in the Nelson-Atkins catalogue," the museum said. The researchers requested a copy to study the under drawing of the panel, it said.
"Bosch typically sketched an under drawing over the ground layer of his oak panels using a coarse brush with thin paint, which was apparent to the team when examining the panel," the museum said. It added that because of the immense volume of documentation produced by the project researchers providing artistic context, the painting "can now be ascribed to Bosch with confidence".
"We are delighted with this major discovery by the Bosch Research and Conservation Project," the museum's director Julian Zugazagoitia said.
The painting, which dates back to between 1500 and 1510AD, was last on view at the Nelson-Atkins in 2003, the museum said.