The Sleeper - The Lost Caravaggio
Director | Alvaro Longoria
Presented by BOFFI STUDIO | ELEMENTO
Caravaggio is one of the most loved artists of the Renaissance; the mythology surrounding him has created a kind of rebellious celebrity.
His work deserves its status as revolutionary in craft, process vision and message.
2025 | 76 mins | Documentary | English, Spanish, Italian with English subtitles
Millions of tourists line up to see his works in churches and museums and for centuries, counterfeits and fakes have emerged and been exposed. It seemed absolutely unthinkable that a ‘lost masterpiece’ would emerge.
In Madrid an eighty-year old woman decided to declutter and sell an old painting that had hung on her family’s walls for generations. The auction house put a EUR1500 price tag on the work and within 24 hours it was re-valued at 300million Euros. The chain of events from here is worthy of a thriller. Mysteries of provenance, government interventions between doubts about the veracity, family ructions, and fierce competitions among art dealers.
This is an extraordinary and electrifying documentary that proves that sometimes fact is stranger than fiction.
An entertaining thriller-like documentary
Janet Maslin. New York Times