Spanish museum in embarrassing climbdown over Goya painting

The Prado museum said the attribution was changed back to Goya to ‘reflect the ongoing debate around the origin of the painting’

El Prado museum, Madrid (Getty Images)

To many admirers of Francisco de Goya, The Colossus is one of the Spanish master’s greatest works, which conveys a sense of menace and the political upheaval through which the artist lived.

Yet despite the importance of the work, it has been dogged by mystery.

Nobody knows if Goya really painted it or not.