PARIS – A painting found in the attic of a house in southwest France two years ago has been attributed to the Italian master Caravaggio by private French experts who hailed its discovery as a great event in the history of art.

The picture, which depicts Biblical heroine Judith beheading an Assyrian general, had left for more than 150 years in a property on the outskirts of Toulous.

Owners of the house discovered the painting when they were investing a leaky roof.

Eric Turquin, the French expert who retrieved the painting two years ago, spoke at a news conference today.

“They had to go through the attic and break a door which they had never opened .. They broke the door and behind it was that picture. It’s really incredible,” he said.

He told reporters the painting is in an exceptional good condition and estimates its value at 120 million euros ($178 million).

The painting is thought to have been painted in Rome in 1604-1605 by Michelangelo Merisi, known as Caravaggio.

French authorities have put a bar on it leaving France, describing it in a decree as a painting of “great artistic value, that could be identified as a lost painting by Caravaggio”.

– with other agencies