NEW YORK—It usually takes millions of dollars to acquire a painting by Velázquez, but the Metropolitan Museum of Art has managed to accomplish that through cleaning, research, and curatorial fiat. The museum announced yesterday that Portrait of a Man (circa 1630), previously attributed to the workshop of the 17th-century Spanish painter, was actually produced by his hand.

The decision to alter the attribution of the work came after a recent cleaning revealed what Keith Christiansen, the chairman of European painting, and Michael Gallagher, a painting conservator, believed to be the vibrant color that was the artist’s trademark. Varnish and touch-ups added over the past few centuries had darkened the work’s palette. Interestingly, when the Met first acquired the work from a benefactor in 1949, it was labeled a Velázquez. It was only stripped of the title in the late 1970s after scholars concluded that, despite a noble provenance that included the legendary dealer Joseph Duveen and George V, the King of Hanover, it lacked the painter’s characteristic skill.

One other thing has now changed about the painting: its value. Only 110 to 120 works are currently attributed to Velázquez, and experts estimate that this new one could be worth $40 million.

Read more at the New York Times.