Carl Bloch’s lost masterpiece Prometheus Unbound finds fame again in Athens

Prometheus Unbound by Carl Bloch on display at the Pavlos and Alexandra Canellopoulos Museum in Athens. Photograph: Panagiotis Moschandreou/The Guardian

It was commissioned by a Greek king, made its creator a superstar and in his native Denmark attracted crowds like no other painting before. Then it mysteriously disappeared.

Now, nearly nine decades after it was last seen gracing the stairwell of the royal palace that would become the Athens parliament, Carl Bloch’s masterpiece, Prometheus Unbound, has found fame again in Greece.