US art detective claims statue was model for Michelangelo

ROME - A US art detective says he has proof a garish terracotta statue found discarded in a moldy cardboard box in an Italian antiques shop is an original model by Michelangelo for his famous Pieta.

"When I first set eyes on the statue I couldn't speak for fully 10 minutes, it was so beautiful. Such mastery, it's impossible to capture in words," Roy Doliner said in Rome this week as he presented his book on the discovery.

"I knew at once it was an original Michelangelo," he said, a conviction that drove him to challenge Italy's art experts, who had ascribed the 'Madonna della Febbre' statue of Mary cradling Jesus to Renaissance sculptor Andrea Bregno.