The international research team led by Britain's University of Cambridge and the Fitzwilliam Museum uncovered new evidence linking the two nude works to Michelangelo, whose famed works include the painted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Standing at a meter (3.3 feet) tall, the sculptures are of a young man and an older man riding panthers, and if confirmed the discovery would make them only surviving Michelangelo bronzes in the world.
"It has been fantastically exciting to have been able to participate in this ground-breaking project," said Victoria Avery, Keeper of the Applied Arts Department of the Fitzwilliam Museum.
"The bronzes are exceptionally powerful and compelling works of art that deserve close-up study we hope the public will come and examine them for themselves, and engage with this ongoing debate."
The pieces were attributed to Michelangelo in their first recording in the 19th century, but this was dismissed over the last 120 years as they were undocumented and unsigned.
However, last autumn University of Cambridge Emeritus Professor of Art History Paul Joannides made a discovery that overturned this thinking.
Joannides found a drawing of a muscular youth riding a panther in a student's copy of lost sketches by Michelangelo, indicating that the artist was planning the unusual design for a sculpture.
Further study of the bronzes found them to be very similar in style and anatomy to Michelangelo's works of 1500 to 1510, the period in which scientific analysis indicates the statues were made.
Read more at Discovery News
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