Whenever I hear about this painting I wonder if such expert-based attribution can really be trusted... then I look at the picture again and think "damn, that is such a fantastic painting, who else could have made it?" And I wonder if the "experts" are just using the same emotional assessment as I am, at the end of the day.
My teachers skipped past the paintings and went straight for helicopter and grave digging. Strange that it was a sword wielding turtle that got me interested in learning more.
I have to agree with another childhood hero though:
What I don't understand is how it looks absolutely nothing like it did in the early 1900s. In the 1900s it looked like a poorer example of one of the many copies of this painting, reflected in the low amount it went for in many auctions.