A Renaissance mural believed to be a neglected work by the celebrated Michelangelo (1475-1564) has divided scholars for centuries. Once adorning the wall of the old master’s childhood home in Florence, the piece is now being sold by the villa’s former owners.

In the 1970s, the Sernesi family purchased the sprawling Florentine villa where Michelangelo was raised and which he later owned. The large charcoal drawing on the kitchen wall of a muscular male nude, perhaps a triton or satyr, had been hidden under a cardboard sheet. Rumours swirled that a young Michelangelo was in fact the author of the piece.

Soon after the family moved in, the mural was detached from its original location for much needed restoration. “When we arrived it was in a state of complete neglect,” recalled Ilaria Sernesi, whose family lived in the villa for half a century. The Sernesi’s are now seeking a buyer for the piece following the sale of their 9,700-square-foot home for an unknown sum in 2023.

Over the years, scholars have tended to disregard the piece. Paul Joannides, the renowned Michelangelo expert and emeritus professor at the University of Cambridge, said that “personally I have never been convinced by it. I see it is as clumsy, poorly foreshortened, crude in its facial expression, ill-articulated and generally as of low quality. I find it hard to believe that even the very young Michelangelo could have drawn so badly.”

Yet recently, numerous curators have accepted its attribution to “Michelangelo”, and it has been loaned as such to exhibitions in Japan, Canada, China, and the United States. In 2017, it featured in The Metropolitan Museum’s blockbuster show “Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer” in New York. The exhibition’s curator, Carmen C. Bambach, described the work as “the only surviving manifestation of Michelangelo’s skill as a draftsman in large scale.”

Giorgio Bonsanti, an Italian Renaissance expert who oversaw the mural’s restoration, also asserted “I just can’t imagine another person entering Michelangelo’s house and drawing a figure on the wall of his kitchen.”

Michelangelo destroyed much of his early work before his death, which would make this piece exceptionally rare on the market. But Italy’s strict cultural patrimony laws may deter international buyers and therefore limit the sale price; the mural was declared a work of national importance by the Italian ministry of culture, which means it cannot legally leave the country, except on loan.

The Sernesi family have decided to sell the painting without an intermediary. Despite the academic controversy, they still believe “it’s a work that merits being seen, appreciated and loved.”