In 1814, the explorer and later MP William Bankes, on a visit to Madrid, purchased what he believed to be an early version of Velasquez' masterpiece Las Meninas. He proudly displayed it over the fireplace in his gallery at Kingston Lacy. It hangs there to this day, hanging next to a portrait of a young cardinal he had purchased in Rome.
His pride and joy later came to be thought a fake, a copy, probably painted by Velasquez' son-in-law Juan Mazo.
It has more recently been re-evaluated yet again as a genuine Velasquez (though x-rays at the Prado suggest otherwise.)
What Bankes did not know, what art historians discovered long after his death, was that the young cardinal hanging anonymously nearby was in fact a genuine Velasquez.
His pride and joy later came to be thought a fake, a copy, probably painted by Velasquez' son-in-law Juan Mazo.
It has more recently been re-evaluated yet again as a genuine Velasquez (though x-rays at the Prado suggest otherwise.)
What Bankes did not know, what art historians discovered long after his death, was that the young cardinal hanging anonymously nearby was in fact a genuine Velasquez.
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