Restoration work on a sculpture of the Virgin, which was believed to date from the 15th century, gave unexpected results for the Madrid art gallery. The work was acquired in 1971 by the National Board of Museums and assigned to the Prado Museum in 1974.

The “Enthroned Praying Virgin” is a polychrome alabaster work that was exhibited by the museum between 1999 and 2003, and was cataloged as a piece of medieval sculpture from the 15th century Spanish school. In 2017, restoration works began on the artwork. During the first inspection, a lack of quality in the execution was detected. Suspicions increased when other faults were noticed in the quality of the material and how it was made.

To reach a conclusion, the museum's materials laboratory took some micro samples of the work; the results of the experts' analysis marked an error of 500 years in the dating of the work, since it does not belong to the 15th century but to the twentieth century. That is, for more than 40 years it was believed that it was a medieval work, when in reality it was made in 1900's, the same century in which it was acquired.

The National Board of Museums recognized that they were the victim of a deception by having paid the amount of 300,000 pesetas for the sculpture, which would correspond to approximately $2,200 USD. The sculpture was acquired from Ángel Lucas Villar, who in 1971 was a famous antiques dealer in Madrid.

The report of this investigation was planned to be published in an exhibition that the Louvre Museum would give from June 24 to 25 "Alabaster as a material for medieval and Renaissance sculpture", however, this was postponed due to the pandemic, so the Museum Prado finally decided to share the discovery.

Sources: 20 Minutes, El Mundo and La Vanguardia.