Long-Lost 17th-Century Altarpiece Paintings Recovered After Nearly 100 Years
Two long-missing 17th-century oval altarpiece paintings by Baroque artist Lucas Valdés have been recovered and returned to the Hospital of the Venerable Priests church in Seville after being missing for nearly a century. Spanish police were alerted in September 2025 by the Archdiocese of Seville after the works appeared in an auction-house catalog, and the Spanish Historical Heritage Brigade confirmed their attribution before seizing them days before the scheduled sale. The 23-by-24-inch pine-board oil paintings, depicting Samson taking honey from a lion and David receiving sacred loaves from Ahimelech, were handed back on May 20 in a ceremony with Archdiocese and police officials. The works had been moved during 1889 renovations, documented in the sacristy in the early 1920s, and disappeared after being shown at Seville’s 1929 Ibero-American Exhibition.
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This story was covered in Auction Fever, Art’s Lost-and-Found Reckoning