Indiana State Museum masterpiece mystery

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - Historians still want to solve the masterpiece mystery from May.

That’s when we learned the Indiana State Museum discovered a painting no one knew about -- hidden under another one by the renown Hoosier artist T.C. Steele.

The discovery was actually made by an art conservator hired to clean the painting in Chicago. The museum had shipped what it thought was one painting. But, as the conservator worked, he realized there was a second painting beneath the first. He describes the discovery as “the highlight of his 40 year career in art history,” says Kathi Moore, the Communications Director at the State Museum.

But, no historian or conservator has been able to identify what the new picture shows. It features big, full trees on one side and a building on the other. After the discovery was revealed, the museum asked whether anyone might recognize the setting. Moore says “we still don't have many details on it. There have been a lot of guesses and suggestions and people who insist that it's a certain place or whatever. But, we may never know."

Bruce Beesley, a vice president at the Museum says historians understand that, sometimes, their questions may never be answered. And, in this case, that doesn’t bother him. If the setting of the painting remains a mystery, “I think it'll be kind of a neat thing to keep wondering about,” he says.

Both paintings are now on display at the T.C. Steele State Historic Site in Brown County.