Goya’s “Colossus” not a Goya painting

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El Coloso, one of its most prized Goyas is not a Goya. Photo: EFE

For years, Spain's famed Prado museum has had its suspicions. Now it is certain: One of its most prized Goyas is not a Goya after all.

The bombshell announcement about the “El Coloso” (“Colossus”), a large-size work depicting the torso of a giant bursting through the clouds as he marches above a village of terrified people and animals, is causing a furor among experts. Many are upset at how the Prado has handled the matter. At least one still insists the painting is a work of the 18th-century master.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes' “Colossus” has always been one of the Prado's major attractions and a highlight of his series on the ravages of the country's war for independence against Napoleon's invading troops.

Doubts about the painting's authenticity began to surface in the early 1990s. Eyebrows were raised when in April the museum unexpectedly excluded it from its blockbuster show “Goya in Times of War.”

But then last week the museum, was given the art work by a collector in 1930, finally announced at a news conference that it no longer considered it a Goya.

The museum says fresh studies indicate that “Coloso” may be the work of a minor painter, Asensio Julia, a pupil and a workshop assistant of Goya. One of the most significant findings, its says, are what appear to be Julia's initials at the bottom of the painting.

“The museum is certain it's not a Goya. That's for sure. What's not so clear is who actually painted it,” a Prado spokeswoman told The Associated Press. She was speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with museum regulations.

The Prado says final results of investigations into the work's authorship, begun several years ago, are not expected before the end of the year.

“The painting is not by Goya's hand,” Manuela Mena, Goya expert and the Prado chief 18th-century art conservationist told reporters recently.