Rafeelo's painting, which has been suspected of being "fake" for more than 40 years, has been recognized by AI

The work of Raphaelo Sanchio, a Renaissance master in the early 16th century, who had been suspected of forgery for more than 40 years, was recently proven to be genuine through artificial intelligence (AI) analysis.

According to the BBC and The Times, researchers at the University of Nottingham and Bradford University recently analyzed the work "de Brécy Tondo" with AI facial recognition technology and found that the faces of Mary and Jesus in the painting were almost identical to those described in Raphaelo's masterpiece "The Madonna of Sistine."

The art world has speculated that the painting may be a 19th-century Victorian replica, saying it is very similar to Raphael's "Madonna of Sistine" completed in 1512. "Madonna of Sistine" was commissioned by then-Pope Julio II to Raphaelo to bless his uncle and Pope Sixto IV, who served four generations earlier. The work also includes images of Sixtus IV and Saint Barbara next to the Holy Mother. It is currently owned by the Dresden Museum of Art in Germany.

However, as the view that "De Bresci Tondo" could also have been drawn by Rafaelo continued, more than 40 years of debate over its authenticity continued. De Bresy Tondo is a painting of the Virgin Mary holding a baby Jesus and is one of the collections of George Lester Winward, a businessman in the Cheshire area. In 1995, two years before his death, Winward established a trust agency that manages the art he had collected and allowed scholars to study it.

Professor Hasan Ugail, director of the Center for Video Computing at Bradford University, said, "After looking at the paintings with new AI technology, we have reached an amazing conviction that 'De Bresci Tondo' is almost Raphael's." "By combining previous facial recognition experiments and previous studies by fellow researchers, we concluded that 'Brecy Tondo' and 'Cistin Madonna' were the work of the same person," he said.

Meanwhile, the Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford, England, will unveil "De Bressy Tondo" on the same day and display it for two months.