A homeowner planned to throw away a painting hanging in her kitchen — it turned out to be a 13th-century masterpiece worth $25 million
- A 13th-century painting was valued at over $25 million after initially being destined for the trash.
- The painting by the Florentine master Cimabue was found hanging in a kitchen in provincial France.
The Louvre acquired a 13th-century masterpiece after it was nearly discarded as worthless.
Discovered hanging in a kitchen during a house clearance in provincial France and destined for the trash, "Christ Mocked" by the Florentine master Cimabue has been declared a national treasure and will find its new home at the world-renowned Louvre Museum in Paris.
The Times reported that the painting was found during a routine house clearance in 2019. "Christ Mocked," initially believed to be of no value, was eventually sold at auction for a staggering $25 million.
The owner, a woman in her nineties, was unaware she'd been looking at an art treasure every day, believing it to be a worthless icon from Russia that she planned to put in the trash.
The buyers, the Chilean billionaires Álvaro Saieh Bendeck, an economist, and his wife Ana Guzmán Ahnfelt, an architect, bought it for their private collection. However, they hit a roadblock when the French government denied the painting an export license.
The French government recognized the cultural significance of the masterpiece and declared it a national treasure. It subsequently granted the Louvre 30 months to raise the necessary funds for its acquisition. Recently, the museum and the painting's owners reached an agreement, securing the artwork's place in the Louvre's collection.
Laurence des Cars, the director of the Louvre, expressed her excitement about the acquisition, stating that it was a "great joy" to have acquired the painting. The amount the Louvre paid for it remains undisclosed.
Des Cars said Cimabue's "Christ Mocked" "constitutes a crucial milestone in the history of art, marking the fascinating transition from icon to painting. It will soon be presented alongside the Maestà, another masterpiece by Cimabue belonging to the Louvre collections and whose restoration is currently continuing."
These two Cimabue paintings will be the subject of a 2025 spring exhibition.
Philomène Wolf, an auctioneer in Compiègne, northern France, discovered the painting's valuable origin. Her assessment of the artwork revealed its exceptional quality, leading her to suspect its Italian history.
Subsequent examinations using modern technology confirmed that Cimabue, a key figure in the development of Renaissance art, was the artist. Scholars believe the piece dates to 1280, making it a valuable addition to the relatively small body of work attributed to Cimabue.
The discovery of Cimabue's "Christ Mocked" echoes a similar recent episode in Spain when a family discovered that a painting that'd been their living room for decades was a Van Dyck that could be worth millions.
And a couple in the UK, laying a new kitchen floor, dug up a trove of 264 rare gold coins and sold at auction last year for $845,000.
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