Both during his life and from beyond the grave, Surrealist Salvador Dalí has never been boring. From animated Disney shorts to failed paternity claims, constantly emerging details of the artist’s life have kept us talking about his work. Now, after 75 years in a private collection, a long-lost Dalí painting has just been rediscovered. It’s set to go on display in New York.

Nicolas Descharnes, a Dalí scholar, confirmed that the painting was indeed authentic in an interview with Artnet. After a series of tests – including infrared photography, signature analysis, and archival research – Descharnes concluded that there was nothing that might indicate the painting is a forgery.

It has been theorised that the painting was created in Dalí’s first months living in Spain in 1932. As Artnet reports, material analysis dating the pigments used to 1932 and the manufacture of the painting’s stretcher in Spain confirm this.

“With a forgery, there is always a mistake you can track somewhere. This one, no mistake,” Nicolas Descharnes said. Descharnes has also authenticated The Intrauterine Birth of Salvador Dalí (c. 1921), which was his first surrealist work.

Adding to its claims for authenticity, the painting is signed “Gala Salvador Dalí” – one of the many ways that Dalí paid tribute to his wife Gala, as well as in his recently re-published book Les Dîners de Gala.