From CNN
A lost 13th-century masterpiece has sold for almost 24.2 million Euros ($26.8 million), just months after it was found hanging in a French kitchen.
“Christ Mocked,” by the Florentine painter Cimabue, sold for more than four times the pre-sale estimate at an auction in Senlis, north of Paris, on Sunday.
An elderly French woman from the town of Compiegne had kept the rare artwork – which she thought was a Greek religious icon – in her kitchen. The unsuspecting owner did not know where the 10-inch by 8-inch painting had come from, according to Jerome Montcouquil of art specialists Cabinet Turquin, which was asked to carry out tests on the painting following its discovery in the summer
“It didn’t take long for us to see that it was an artwork by Italian painter Cimabue,” he told CNN prior to the sale. “He’s a father of painting so we know his work very well.”
Cimabue is the pseudonym of artist Cenni di Pepo, born in Florence around the year 1240. He is known to have been the discoverer and master of Giotto, widely regarded as one of the greatest artists of the pre-Renaissance era.
What's amazing about this story is that only 11 of his paintings exist worldwide. Imagine one of them just hanging in a kitchen – that's quite extraordinary. The silver lining? All those years surrounded by delicious French cuisine seem to have been good for the painting; it's still in fantastic condition.
