2.9m pounds Michelangelo figure a fake?

London, Dec 18 (ANI): Doubts have been raised over the authenticity of a 'Michelangelo' work of art which cost the Italian government 2.9 million pounds.

Prosecutors in Rome who specialize in art fraud opened an investigation into the deal this week, reports The Telegraph.

The wooden carving of Christ on a cross was bought last year from an art dealer based in Turin, and has been attributed to Michelangelo despite a lack of official documentation to prove it is a genuine masterpiece.

Now, prosecutors are looking into the matter, and will be scrutinizing documents from a court in Lazio, which first started investigating the mystery in the summer after suspicions were raised that the state had wasted its money on a wrongly attributed work.

Francesco Caglioti, an expert on medieval sculptures, told La Repubblica newspaper: "The quality of this work bears no resemblance to those of Michelangelo and every resemblance to the many crucifixes of this kind which were made by artisans in Florence in this period."

Tomaso Montanari, an art history professor at Naples University, said it was "clearly not" a Michelangelo. (ANI)