MINERAL, Va. (AP) - An art history buff believes he's identified a centuries-old print of a famous painting in a small Virginia church.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Saturday that the print is at the Gilboa Christian Church in Mineral, Virginia. The mid-19th Century building is about an hour from Richmond.
Federico Colagrande believes the print is of Raphael's "Madonna di San Sisto." The 16th Century painting depicts the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus.
The original painting was sold to a ruler in Saxony in 1754. Then, Friedrich Müller made prints from the original. Only a handful of those prints exist today.
Colagrande believes the print is a "Müller Madonna," because Müller's name is on it, among other clues. Such prints are found in museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
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