The National Trust for Scotland has discovered in one of its stately homes a painting that art historians believe is likely to be a work by the Italian renaissance artist Raphael.

The painting, a Madonna composition, had been obscured by discoloured varnish and was attributed to a minor hand. Its potential as a work of one of the giants of art history, as revered as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, was initially spotted by the historian Bendor Grosvenor.

The picture has been dated to between 1505 and 1510. By 1899 its valuation as a copy was just £20 – equivalent to about £2,000 in present-day prices. As a Raphael, its value on today’s market would be around £20m.

Grosvenor was visiting Haddo House, the National Trust’s 18th-century stately home in Aberdeenshire, to examine some other paintings for a new BBC series when he was struck by a picture tucked away in a corner, high up over a door.

The light was poor and its details were difficult to discern. Yet, he recalled: “I thought, crikey, it looks like a Raphael … It was very dirty under old varnish, which goes yellow … Being an anorak, I go round houses like this with binoculars and torches. If I hadn’t done that, I’d probably have walked past it.”

He discovered that the picture had been bought as a Raphael in the early 19th century and exhibited as such in 1841 at the British Institution in London, alongside other Raphaels that are still accepted as genuine.

But it was soon afterwards downgraded to “after Raphael”, suggesting a copy by another artist, and it was eventually attributed to a minor Renaissance artist, Innocenzo Francucci da Imola.

“It is simply too good to be by Innocenzo,” Grosvenor said. He persuaded the National Trust to allow him to have it conserved.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jacky Klein and Bendor Grosvenor with the painting. Photograph: Andrew Staite/BBC/Tern Television

The removal of many layers of dirt and varnish revealed what he described as “a work of extreme beauty” with a “breathtaking” quality. “You stand there and wonder, how did he do that, which you do with all great painters,” he said.

His subsequent research uncovered important evidence such as underdrawing “which fitted the bill”, he said. An alteration in one of the fingers “suggests original creative intervention, meaning the picture cannot be a copy of another known work”.

The drawing of the face, and the model used, were recognisably Raphaelesque, he observed, pointing out that the same profile appeared in other Raphael Madonnas. A photograph of a now-lost Raphael drawing also matched its basic outlines “very closely”.

The story of the discovery will be told on 5 October in a new BBC4 series, Britain’s Lost Masterpieces, co-presented by Grosvenor and the art historian Jacky Klein.

In the programme, Sir Nicholas Penny, former director of the National Gallery, describes the Haddo painting as “very beautiful”. On his attributional scale of “perhaps, probably or by” a particular artist, he declares: “I’m between probably and by. I just want a bit more time and courage.”

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Grosvenor, who is also a presenter on BBC1’s Fake or Fortune series, said: “We had to turn this series round in very quick order. We didn’t have time or resources to take it on a European tour of Raphael scholars.”

But he added that “all the evidence seems to point in the right direction … It would be Scotland’s only publicly owned Raphael.”

Haddo House was home to the earls and marquesses of Aberdeen, the most famous of whom was the 4th earl, George Gordon, a 19th-century prime minister. The house and its contents – including this picture - were given to the National Trust for Scotland in 1976.



Grosvenor said: “In the film, we talk to the current Lord Aberdeen about the fate of the family picture collection. He acutely observed that if it hadn’t been downgraded … it would have been sold long ago and it wouldn’t have been in the house today.”

The painting is attributed to Innocenzo on the website of Art UK, which has recorded 200,000 oil paintings in the UK’s public collections. The site was the starting point for Grosvenor’s BBC series – “wading through thousands of pictures” in search of lost masterpieces.

The public can see the painting in Haddo House’s dining room, where it has been given pride of place.