An independent researcher has stirred controversy in the art world by claiming that a marble bust of Christ the Saviour, housed in a Rome church, was sculpted by Michelangelo. Valentina Salerno, a fiction author and actor, presented newly discovered documents at a press conference last week, suggesting the bust was among the artist's secret works hidden in a locked room before his death.
The bust, located at Sant’Agnese fuori le mura (St Agnes Outside the Walls) since 1590, has long been attributed to an unknown sculptor. Salerno argues that archival records show Michelangelo ordered associates to stash drawings and sculptures, including this bust, in a secret room with multiple keys. She claims this challenges the long-held theory that Michelangelo burned his works before dying in 1564.
Salerno, who has no formal art history training but studied law for three years, has spent over a decade sifting through Italian and Vatican archives. Her findings, published on academia.edu, suggest there could be about 20 unknown Michelangelo works. She believes the bust resembles Tommaso dei Cavalieri, a young nobleman Michelangelo was infatuated with.
The attribution has historical precedent: the bust was widely discussed in the 18th and 19th centuries, with British painter JMW Turner sketching it in 1819 and French writer Stendhal endorsing Michelangelo's authorship. However, a 1984 scholarly debunking led Italy's culture ministry to classify it as by an unknown sculptor.
The church's abbot, Franco Bergamin, supports Salerno's research, stating the complex 'always holds surprises.' Yet the Italian culture ministry and Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, who appointed Salerno to a Vatican exhibition committee, did not respond to inquiries. Experts like Francesco Caglioti, a medieval art history professor, have declined to comment, while visitors like Fabio Orazzo remain open-minded, noting stylistic differences may reflect different periods of Michelangelo's life.
