Unfinished Michelangelo Painting Found?

After rambunctious kids knocked the Kober family’s old painting off the wall, the parents stuck it behind the sofa, where it sat for 27 years until they had it appraised—and learned it was painted by Michelangelo. Martin Kober, of Buffalo, New York, showed the family heirloom to an art restorer, who says that a scientific analysis of the work—complete with infrared and X-ray inspections—shows the picture was painted around 1545 for Michelangelo’s friend Vittoria Colonna. The painting, which depicts Jesus and Mary, took a long route to get to the Kobers. It was first was given to two Catholic cardinals before it was acquired by a German baroness, who gave it to her lady-in-waiting Gertrude Young. Young, the sister-in-law of Kober’s great-great-grandfather, shipped it to America in 1883. It’s been here ever since, and is now worth about $300 million.