CULTURE: Model for Michelangelo's Pieta Found

A US art historian says he’s found the model for Michelangelo's great statue the Pieta at the Vatican, the Daily Telegraph reports. An Italian art collector picked up the 12-inch terracotta model at an antiques shop; before restoration, it was covered in paint and dotted with Scotch tape. But long analysis has led Roy Doliner to believe it is indeed the work of the Renaissance artist.

The model had been attributed to the 15th-century sculptor Andrea Bregno, but Doliner points to its age, its detail, and artists’ later references to it as evidence that it is the work of Michelangelo. Doliner says the artist created it in an effort to get a commission to build the Pieta. Doliner will present his findings in Rome tomorrow