By the late 18th century, the painting was thought to have disappeared, and its whereabouts remained unknown for about 200 years. In 1990, Caravaggio's lost masterpiece was recognized in the residence of the
Society of Jesus in
Dublin,
Ireland. The rediscovery was published in November 1993. The painting was hanging in the Dublin Jesuits’ dining room since the early 1930s, but had long been considered a copy of the lost original by
Gerard van Honthorst, also known as Gherardo delle Notti, one of
Caravaggio's Dutch followers. This erroneous attribution had already been made while the painting was in the possession of the Roman
Mattei family, whose ancestor had originally commissioned it. In 1786, one Giuseppe Vasi misattributed the painting, recording it as a work by Honthorst, and this error had been repeated in an inventory of the Mattei family's possessions taken in 1793. In 1802, the Mattei sold it, as a work by Honthorst, to
William Hamilton Nisbet. It hung in his home in
Scotland until 1921. Later in that decade, still unrecognised, the painting was sold to an Irish paediatrician, Marie Lea-Wilson, who eventually donated it in the 1930s to the Jesuit Fathers in
Dublin, in gratitude for their support following the
shooting of her husband, Capt. Percival Lea-Wilson, a District Inspector in the
Royal Irish Constabulary in
Gorey, County Wexford, by the
Irish Republican Army on 15 June 1920.
The Taking of Christ remained in the Dublin Jesuits' possession for about 60 years, until it was spotted and recognised, in the early 1990s, by
Sergio Benedetti, Senior Conservator of the
National Gallery of Ireland, who had been asked by Father Noel Barber, S.J., to examine a number of paintings in the
Leeson Street Jesuit Community (of which Barber was superior) for the purposes of restoration. As layers of dirt and discoloured varnish were removed, the high technical quality of the painting was revealed, and it was tentatively identified as Caravaggio's lost painting. Much of the credit for verifying the authenticity of this painting belongs to
Francesca Cappelletti and Laura Testa, two graduate students at the
University of Rome. During a long session of research, they found the first recorded mention of
The Taking of Christ, in an ancient and decaying account book documenting the original commission and payments to Caravaggio, in the archives of the Mattei family, kept in the cellar of a palazzo in the small town of
Recanati. The painting is on indefinite loan to the
National Gallery of Ireland from the Jesuit Community, Leeson Street, Dublin, who acknowledge the kind generosity of Dr Marie Lea-Wilson. It was displayed in the United States as the centrepiece of a 1999 exhibition entitled "Saints and Sinners", organized by
Franco Mormando at the
McMullen Museum of Art, at
Boston College, and at the 2006 "
Rembrandt / Caravaggio" exhibition in the
van Gogh Museum,
Amsterdam. In 2010 it was displayed from February to June at the
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, for the 400th anniversary of Caravaggio's death. In 2016, it was displayed in the
National Gallery, London. From May to September 2024, the painting was on loan at the
Ulster Museum in Belfast, displayed alongside another work of Caravaggio,
The Supper at Emmaus, painted around 1601. Both paintings had been rarely, if ever, seen together since the early 17th century. In 2025, the painting was on loan to
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica (
Palazzo Barberini) in Rome for the Caravaggio exhibition. , Ukraine ==Copies==