Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, “Madonna with Saints John the Evangelist and Gregory the Miracle Worker,” 1639, oil on panel

Moroccan authorities recently recovered a stolen baroque masterpiece — worth an estimated $6 million — by the Italian artist known as “The Squinter.” What’s the buzz?

Moroccan authorities announced last Friday their recovery of a beautiful baroque painting that had been stolen from a church during a nighttime robbery in 2014. Police were tipped when a wealthy Moroccan businessman and art collector was offered the opportunity to purchase the painting. An adroit student of art, the collector immediately recognized the stolen work and alerted authorities, who promptly seized the painting and arrested the two who possessed it.

The painting is a brilliant image of “Madonna with Saints John the Evangelist and Gregory the Miracle Worker” by 17th-century painter Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, known as Guercino and “The Squinter.” Stolen from a church in Modena in 2014, the painting has been valued at $6 million.

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Andrew Webster is the former Editor of Fine Art Today and worked as an editorial and creative marketing assistant for Streamline Publishing. Andrew graduated from The University of North Carolina at Asheville with a B.A. in Art History and Ceramics. He then moved on to the University of Oregon, where he completed an M.A. in Art History. Studying under scholar Kathleen Nicholson, he completed a thesis project that investigated the peculiar practice of embedded self-portraiture within Christian imagery during the 15th and early 16th centuries in Italy.

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