4_5891208568916412701.pdf

Published by Macmillan Education Ltd. © Macmillan Education Limited, 2021.
Home >> Adults >> General English >> NEWS LESSONS
‘Damn, this is a Caravaggio!’: the inside story of an old master found in Spain
Level: Elementary / Pre-Intermediate
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Warmer
a. Match the famous painters with their nationalities. What do you know about them and their work?
1. Caravaggio a. Norwegian
2. Vincent Van Gogh b. French
3. Pablo Picasso c. Italian
4. Paul Cézanne d. Belgian
5. Edvard Munch e. Dutch
6. René Magritte f. Spanish
Key words
a. Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text.
auction gallery inherited secret value
1. The of something is how much money it is worth.
2. A/An is a building where people look at paintings.
3. In a/an , if you offer the most money, you can buy the item.
4. If you something, you got it from a person who has died.
5. A/An is a piece of information you can’t tell anyone.
banned confirmed miracle pale speechless
6. If you something, you said that it is true.
7. If a person is , their face looks lighter than usual.
8. If you are , you are so surprised that you are not able to talk.
9. If the authorities something, they stopped people from
using or selling it .
10. A is something very lucky that is not usually possible.
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Lorenzo Tondo and Sam Jones
23 April, 2021
Massimo Pulini is a painter and a famous art
historian. For many years, art collectors and
art dealers have sent him photos of paintings.
They want him to say what he thinks of the
paintings and what their value could be.
On 24 March, Giancarlo Ciaroni, a gallery
owner from Milan, sent Pulini an email with a
picture of a painting. After a few minutes, Pulini
realized that the small painting could be worth
millions. “This is a Caravaggio! Where did you
find it?” he replied.
The painting was in an online catalogue for an
auction in Madrid with a starting price of 1,500
Euros. People thought a 17th-century Spanish
artist painted it.
A few days later, Ciaroni had a meeting in
Madrid with the painting’s owners. They
inherited it from their father. Ciaroni said “I can
offer you up to 500,000 Euros,” but he didn’t tell
them that it was a Caravaggio. Then the family
said, “We have already received two separate
offers of 3 million Euros,” so Ciaroni realized
the secret was out.
At first, the owners planned to auction the
painting at a starting price of 1,500 Euros, but
they now had three huge offers. “They were
confused. Almost frightened,” said Ciaroni.
“I made photocopies of an essay that Pulini
wrote after he received the picture of the
painting.”
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In the essay, Pulini identified the work as
a Caravaggio painting from 1605. “I gave
details that confirmed the painting was by
Caravaggio,” Pulini said. “I wrote the essay
and sent it to Ciaroni.” When the auction
house director began reading the essay aloud
to the family, their faces turned pale. “They
were speechless,” Ciaroni said. “Their father
bought the painting in the 1970s and for about
50 years, they had no idea that the painting
in their home was a Caravaggio that could be
worth millions.”
The painting is no longer in the auction and
experts from the Prado Museum are waiting to
examine it. Then they can say for certain if it is
a Caravaggio. The Spanish culture ministry has
also banned its export.
Whatever happens, Pulini says it is a miracle
that the painting has survived for so long. As
for Ciaroni, he realized he could no longer buy
it. “For a few hours, while on my way to Spain,
I thought that it was already mine,” he said.
© Guardian News and Media 2021
First published in The Guardian, 23/04/2021
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Comprehension check
a. Answer the questions using information from the article.
1. What does Massimo Pulini do?
2. What was in Giancarlo Ciaroni’s email?
3. What was the starting price of the painting in the online catalogue?
4. How much did Ciaroni offer the family for the painting?
5. How much were the two other offers for the painting?
6. When, according to Pulini, did Caravaggio paint the painting?
7. How long did the painting hang in the family home?
8. How much could it be worth?
9. What did the Spanish ministry ban?
10. What, according to Pulini, is “a miracle”?
Using key language
a. Rearrange the words to make time expressions from the text.
1. few / a / minutes
2. many / for / years
3. later / few / a / days
4. fifty / for / years / about
5. a / hours / few / for
6. the / March / twenty-fourth / of / on
Discussion
a. Discuss these statements.
• “Three million Euros is too much money to pay for a painting.”
• “If you buy a famous, historical painting, it should be yours and not your country’s.”

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In your own words
a. Write a short summary of the story. Use these sentence beginnings to help you.
Art collectors and dealers send …
A gallery owner from Milan sent …
Pulini quickly realized that …
The gallery owner went to Madrid and …
He offered them …
But the family already received …
They didn’t know that the painting …
Experts from the Prado Museum will …
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Level: Elementary/Pre-Intermediate – Teacher’s notes
Article summary: The article describes how
a small painting found in Spain could be worth
millions.
Time: 60 minutes
Skills: Reading, Speaking, Writing
Language focus: Vocabulary
Materials needed: One copy of the
worksheet per student
1. Warmer
a. The purpose of this activity is to introduce the
topic of fine art and for students to use a process
of elimination to match the painters with their
nationalities. It is likely that they will have heard of at
least one or two of the artists in the list and linguistic
clues will possibly help them identify the nationalities
of the others. The painters in the list also feature
in the In your own words activity at the end of
the lesson.
Key:
1. c
2. e
3. f
4. b
5. a
6. d
2. Key words
a. Ask students to do the exercise individually and
then compare their answers in pairs or small groups.
Encourage students to use some of this vocabulary
actively by asking them questions such as ‘What
kind of things can you buy at an auction?’ and ‘What
can you see in an art gallery?’
Key:
1. value
2. gallery
3. auction
4. inherited
5. secret
6. confirmed
7. pale
8. speechless
9. banned
10. miracle
3. Comprehension check
a. The corrections given are only suggested answers
and students may correctly answer the questions
in different ways, e.g. number 6 could be ‘over 400
years ago’.
Key:
1. He is a painter and an art historian.
2. a picture of a painting
3. 1,500 Euros
4. 500,000 Euros
5. Both were for 3 million Euros.
6. in 1605
7. for almost fifty years
8. millions
9. the painting’s export
10. that the painting has survived for so long

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Level: Elementary/Pre-Intermediate – Teacher’s notes
6. In your own words
a. Note that there is no single correct answer to this
task but students should provide a piece of writing
that is broadly accurate.
Model answer:
Art collectors and dealers send photos of paintings
to Massimo Pulini. A gallery owner from Milan sent
him an email with a picture of a small painting. Pulini
quickly realized that the painting could be worth
millions. The gallery owner went to Madrid and had a
meeting with the family that owned the painting. He
offered them 500,000 Euros. But the family already
received two offers of 3 million Euros for the painting.
They didn’t know that the painting was a Caravaggio
and could be worth millions. Experts from the Prado
Museum will examine the painting.
4. Using key language
a. Students could be asked to do this exercise
individually and then compare their answers in pairs.
If necessary, they can also check their answers by
looking in the text. Point out that 24 March (and all
other dates) can be said in two ways: either ‘on the
twenty-fourth of March’ or ‘on March the twenty-fourth’.
In American English, ‘the’ is not needed in the latter
version. Note that cardinal numbers cannot be used
when giving dates. To practise this, you could ask
students to say when their birthday is.
Key:
1. a few minutes
2. for many years
3. a few days later
4. for about fifty years
5. for a few hours
6. on the twenty-fourth of March
5. Discussion
a. Allow students time to note down their ideas about
each statement and encourage them to say why they
agree or disagree with each one.

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