The £5m painting found... in a kitchen!
A PAINTING found hanging above a stove in a French kitchen is a lost masterpiece worth £5 million, experts said.
Christ Mocked, by Florentine Renaissance artist Cimabue, is part of a series of 13th Century works, one of which is at London’s National Gallery.
The artwork was in a house in Compiegne, near Paris, where the elderly lady owner believed it to be an old religious icon.
Stephane Pinta, from the Turquin gallery in Paris, said the wooden work – measuring 10x8 inches – was a ‘major discovery for the history of art’.
The owner considered it of little importance until an auctioneer inspecting her house saw it, Miss Pinta said.
Cimabue, who taught Italian master Giotto, is the forefather of the Italian Renaissance. He broke from the Byzantine style of the Middle Ages and used movement and perspective.
Experts noted similarities with panels of Cimabue’s diptych – two hinged wooden pieces that can fold like a book – displayed at the Frick Collection in New York and the National Gallery.
Likenesses in the facial expressions and buildings and the techniques used to convey light and distance specifically pointed to the small piece having been created by Cimabue, they said.
‘Note the motion in Christ,’ Miss Pinta said.
Alexis Ashot, an art consultant for Christie’s, said the discovery caused ripples of excitement.
‘It’s wonderful to be reminded that there are paintings of such major importance still out there to be discovered,’ he said.
It will be the first Cimabue ever auctioned, at Acteon’s, north of Paris on October 27.
‘A major discovery’