In what has to be a landmark for dorm room art, a dormitory at England's Oxford University has discovered that a painting on its walls may actually be a long-lost Michelangelo, according to the BBC. The work, purchased by the school in the 1950s at Sotheby's and hung in a small Jesuit residence called Campion Hall, didn't make much of a splash until advances in technology made it possible to revise its attribution.

The painting depicts a crucifixion with the Madonna and St. John in the foreground at bottom, and two mourning angels emerging from the darkness below Jesus's outstretched arms. The Christ figure has the defined musculature and contorted pose that are Michelangelo signatures.

The painting was originally attributed to Michelangelo's contemporary Marcello Venusti. The new identification is the result of evidence from infrared imaging which has led historian and conservationist Antonio Forcellino to claim the painting as the work of the Renaissance master. At the time of its creation, the painting was associated with nobleman Tommaso Cavalieri, Michelangelo's suspected lover, strengthening the claim.

Scholar Lucinda Byatt further explores the history of the painting in a blog post. She notes an inscription on the back of the painting that was published in a scholarly essay on the work in 1961, reading, "This unique picture was painted by Mich. Angelo Buonarotti and was presented by him to his intimate friend the Cavl. Cavallieri of Rome." The connection is made even more clear by the original presence of "18 wax seals marked with the Cavalieri family arms around the edges of the panel."

The new attribution isn't definitive, but the evidence seems strongly in favor of Michelangelo. Old master or not, Campion Hall master Father Brendan Callaghan notes that the painting's "value in the three years I've been master has gone up tenfold, even if it's not by Michelangelo."

The work's new-found significance has made the school rethink keeping it in such an informal location. The possible Michelangelo masterpiece has now been removed from the Jesuit residency and is protected at Oxford University's Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. At least it won't get any beer spilled on it there.

[UPDATE: Please do not understand the last line of this article, a joke at the expense of dormhood generally, to imply that the Jesuit-run Campion Hall is a place for wassailing or other drunken debauchery. As a reader has alerted us, "Unlike it's larger neighbours, CH has a reputation for quiet sobriety, and Fr. Callaghan, over his six terms, has overseen that this remains the case."]