Focus on this artwork and discuss the Possible second version.
When Caravaggio left Naples on 14 June 1607, he left two paintings - the Madonna of the Rosary and Judith beheading Holofernes - in the studio in Naples that was shared by the two Flemish painters and art dealers Louis Finson and Abraham Vinck. Vinck likely took the two paintings with him when he left Naples and settled in Amsterdam around 1609.  Later Finson also moved to Amsterdam. The two paintings are mentioned again, this time in the will and testament dated 19 September 1617 prepared by Finson in Amsterdam.  In his will Finson left Vinck his share in the two Caravaggio paintings that they had owned in common since Naples. Finson died shortly after making his will and his heir Vinck died two years later.  After Vinck died his heirs sold the Madonna of the Rosary after 1619 for 1800 florins to a committee of Flemish painters and 'amateurs' led by Peter Paul Rubens for the Saint Paul's Church of the Dominican friars in Antwerp.  In 1786, Emperor Joseph II of Austria first ordered the closure of all 'useless' monastic orders and then claimed the other painting by Caravaggio for his art collection.  It can now be admired in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.  Caravaggio's work, which was a gift of Antwerp's leading artists and an expression of their deep religious devotion had thus become the object of looting by the Austrian rulers of Flanders.There was no trace of the second Caravaggio representing Judith beheading Holofernes co-owned by Vinck and Finson since the early 1600s. It was suggested that it should be identified with the painting in the collection of the Intesa Sanpaolo bank in Naples.
A painting of Judith beheading Holofernes discovered in an attic in Toulouse in 2014 is believed by certain scholars to be the lost Caravaggio.  Other scholars see in both the Toulouse Judith and the work in the collection of the Intesa Sanpaolo bank not only works painted by the hand of Finson but they have also contended that they are in fact original creations of Finson rather than copies after a lost Caravaggio. The Toulouse version has even been described as Finson's masterpiece.  Both camps of art historians base their attribution on the stylistic and technical features of the work.An export ban was placed on the painting by the French government while tests were carried out to establish its authenticity.  In February 2019 it was announced that the painting would be sold at auction after the Louvre had turned down the opportunity to purchase it for €100 million. It was instead bought by art collector and hedge fund manager J.Tomilson Hill for an undisclosed amount of money shortly before the planned auction, in June 2019. The new owner is a board member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
art collection Peter Paul Rubens Kunsthistorisches Museum Austria Caravaggio Dominican friars Judith beheading Holofernes Emperor Joseph II Holofernes Louis Finson Vienna Abraham Vinck Louvre painting Saint Paul's Church Metropolitan Museum of Art