1,500 euros. That was the departure price of the painting that the Pérez de Castro Méndez family intended to sell at an auction in Ansorena, in Madrid in 2021. A painting that had been with them for decades, in their living room, and that by a move they had decided to get rid of it. They had always told them that it was a good painting, which could even be the circle of José de Ribera, but what they could not imagine, is that they had had a lost caravaggio in their possession. A pictorial jewel that many had been looking for a while and that suddenly appeared in the online catalog of a Spanish auction house.
Although they were not aware, the art markers had no doubt when they saw that photo that began to be sent by WhatsApp groups that could be a jewel. The fight to get what could be a Caravaggio Ecce Homo began. Between bambalins there was a race for being the most skilled to manage the purchase. Finally, the march that achieved it was another Spaniard, Jorge Coll, and the little that has been known about the whole process was that, after being declared a cultural interest by the Ministry of Culture, the picture was bought by an anonymous person.
The work has been seen for months in the Prado – now is in Italy – because the family put as a condition for sale that had to be exposed in Spain. Nothing is known about the final price (which is estimated at 36 million), nor of the identity of the anonymous philanthropist, nor of the conditions of the assignment between the buyer and the Ministry of Culture. Nor offer those answers The Sleepper, the Lost Caravaggiothe documentary directed by Álvaro Longoria on the purchase process of the table.
What the director offers is a unique access to the scenes of the entire operation. A version of Ocean’s Eleven where dealers, Art marchers use all their weapons to manage the sale of a SLEEPER, A picture that has been asleep for years and appears suddenly calling the attention of the entire sector. Also to take a part of the cake. As one of the marches that appear in the film says, as soon as they saw that image in the online catalog, everyone launched “like hyenas” to the painting.
A real -time documentary thriller that is born from a stroke of luck. When Álvaro Longoria began reading in the press everything that was happening with Caravaggio that was going to be sold for 1,500 euros called his friend Jorge Coll. “I called him and told him, ‘What’s happening?’, And he told me that there was not only a story inside, but possibly the painting was left. So I told him that if he stayed, then I would roll it. He told me yes, and we closed an agreement that allowed me to enter behind the barrier of confidentiality, ”says Longoria on the origins of the project from the Malaga Festival, where the documentary has been presented.
Throughout the process he realized that this painting was not a simple painting, it was “the rock star.” Also that all that was a matter of “many millions” where all the marches wanted to leave as winners. “That was brutal. I have received messages from 20 experts saying that they were the first to say that it was a Caravaggio. The other day in Rome he called me one complaining about not being in the documentary because he also said he was the first. It was a crazy race. The Dealers Italians all came to Madrid to try to buy the picture and make increasingly high offers. They paid 20 million without even having seen the painting, they had only seen a WhatsApp message, ”he explains and summarizes everything in the end was an operation where” there was a lot of money at stake. ”
In this story there is greedy, honor, ego and reputation. And, obviously, a lot of money. In the art world to be the one that has discovered Caravaggio is the best. Is to win the Champions
Álvaro Longoria
– Filmmaker and producer
It is also seen in the movie that there is a lot of adrenaline. The taste to say ‘I was me’. Álvaro Longoria defines the elements of this story: “There is greedy, honor, ego and reputation. And, obviously, a lot of money. In the art world to be the one that has discovered Caravaggio is the best. It’s like winning the Champions. You are the one who has the eye, the one who was there at the right time. You see that these Dealersmany of them are billionaires, and for them it is a matter of ego ”, summary. What shocked him was that while these people are able to pay million for a picture, historians who have to prove that Caravaggio charges only 3,000 euros.
With those wimbres it was clear that what there was, even if it was a documentary, was “a Fincher thriller, a kind of Thomas Crown’s secret” “I did not want to make a philosophical dissertation about the art world, or a class of history about Caravaggio, what I wanted was to tell a story of a family that has something that is worth a lot of money, that do not know what they have, and all those who accompany this process to get the most possible money,” he emphasizes.
To close the story, “he who buys the painting nobody knows who he is, is an anonymous person or institution, which makes everything more surprising.” And Álvaro Longoria doesn’t know it after accompanying Jorge Coll? The filmmaker laughs and confesses: “I know who he is, but I can’t tell it because I have a confidentiality agreement. I also know why he has sold it. ” What he does not know are the conditions of the agreement with the Prado. That is why he believes that there will be more episodes, because nobody knows where the picture will be in three months. “There are too many unknowns,” Zanja.
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