France Nicks Nic

This life-sized painting The Carrying of the Cross (ca 1632) by Nicolas Tournier is the subject of an international dispute. The Weiss Gallery of London bought it at the Maastricht art fair 2010 and recently took it to Paris Tableau, a small art fair devoted to old masters, where the owner Mark Weiss intended to sell it to the Augustins Museum in Toulouse, which had authenticated the work. On Monday up springs the French Culture Ministry claiming it had been stolen, a claim unknown to the Art Loss Register. La Republic originally nicked the painting from the Company of the Black Penitents in the southern French city of Toulouse during the French Revolution. It was put on display in a local museum, but vanished in 1818. Two years ago it turned up in Italy during a sale of the estate of a wealthy Florentine art collector. There is now an export ban on the work (title link). The big question is: How come the Augustins Museum authenticated the painting without dropping the slightest hint that it might have been stolen? Sounds like dirty work afoot, Watson.