After it was discovered hidden inside the walls of the art gallery from which it was reported stolen 23 years earlier, art experts have determined that the found “Portrait of a Lady” by Gustav Klimt is authentic, according to NBC News.

The painting was stolen from the Ricci Oddi Modern Art Gallery in Piacenza, Italy, in 1997, NBC reported. The work was valued at $66 million and disappeared during renovations on the gallery.

At the time, investigators were unable to find any leads, according to The Guardian, though police believed that the thieves removed the painting from the gallery wall with a fishing line, pulling it up through an open skylight and onto the roof of the gallery.

The painting was found in December 2019 by a gardener, who was clearing ivy from the outside of the gallery when he discovered a metal panel. The gardener opened the panel to find a bag inside, containing the missing painting, NBC reported.

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Authorities are currently examining traces of organic material that were left on the painting to gather leads as to who might have taken it. Officials said they are hoping to determine whether the painting ever left the grounds of the art gallery, according to ABC News.

The painting was the most sought-after stolen painting in the world, similar to a work from Caravaggio that was stolen in 1969, said Jonathan Papamerenghi, the culture chief of the city of Piacenza, according to The Guardian.

The discovery of the painting is of great importance to the art world.

“It’s with no small emotion that I can tell you the work is authentic,” Ornella Chicca, a prosecutor in Piacenza, told reporters at a news conference on Friday, according to NBC.

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