How does Crucifix (Michelangelo) elucidate its Other crucifix attributed to Michelangelo?
In December 2008, the Italian government acquired from the antique dealer Giancarlo Gallino for €3.2 million another polychrome corpus for a crucifix in limewood; this is less than half the size of the Santo Spirito figure.  The figure had been previously exhibited in 2004 in the Museo Horne in Florence.Some art historians attributed the work to Michelangelo based only on stylistic criteria, as the sculpture is not documented by contemporary biographers of Michelangelo Ascanio Condivi and Giorgio Vasari. The figure measures 41.3 by 39.7 centimetres (16.3 in × 15.6 in) and was allegedly made around 1495. In December 2009, an inquiry has been opened into the acquisition of the crucifix by the Italian state. ANSA reports that: "several experts have cast doubts on the attribution, with the doyenne of Michelangelo cross studies, German art historian Margrit Lisner, saying it was probably a Sansovino."
There have been academic debates regarding the authenticity of the two crosses already attributed to Michelangelo. In a book published by the Leipzig University Press in 2019, the Milanese restaurator and art historian Antonio Forcellino takes a position in the discussion about Michelangelos crucifix of Santo Spirito. There he identifies Michelangelo's crucifix of Santo Spirito as a wooden crucifix that is still privately owned. Antonio Forcellino attributes this work to Michelangelo not only because of its display of anatomical detail but mainly due to an epigraph, which was inscribed on the back of the work at the beginning of the 18th century.
Antonio Forcellino Giorgio Vasari Florence Sansovino  Santo Spirito Michelangelo Ascanio Condivi Museo Horne Leipzig University Press ANSA crucifix limewood polychrome