I am afraid this is more a reflection on the state of the collections, museums and auction houses, who have never even reached out to Köchert for any verification, not just for this but for the majority of the notable items that have been displayed or sold off in recent years.

I have worked with Beatrice and the Köchert team several times over the past several months, and they have been quite open with their archives and very helpful in providing all sorts of information.

It has been quite a journey to identify this piece, with the initial analysis made in December, but the verification process took so long, and had to be kept confidential until the Al Thani collection approved. They revealed the discovery during a lecture two days ago, and only then were Köchert allowed to make it public.