British critics found the lost 140 years ago, the masterpiece of Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) “portrait of a woman”, reports The Daily Telegraph. Specialists of the auction house Christie’s has estimated the preliminary cost of a cloth 3.4 million pounds.
the Unusual story of finding the painting has nothing to do with the exciting crime Thriller, rather, it is a tale of stupidity and blatant incompetence. The owner of “Portrait of a woman” in 1878 became a London lawyer, Charles Butler, since the work of Rubens was in the hands of one family until his great-grandchildren in 2017 has not made a decision to get rid of junk in an old mansion in Yorkshire. Local appraisers mistakenly attributed the authorship of paintings by the famous Flemish pupil of the master. In the result it was sold at auction for 77 million pounds, which is 40 times less than the real value of the lot.
the New owner, having studied the genealogy of the canvas gave it for examination to specialists in the old masters, which after a thorough cleaning of the canvas confirmed the authenticity of the masterpiece.
the Work of Rubens does not so often fall at a public auction and generally go under the hammer for record prices.
