Reuters
- A 13th-century masterpiece was valued at over $25 million after being destined for the trash.
- The painting by Florentine master Cimabue was discovered hanging in a kitchen in provincial France.
- The artwork has been declared a national treasure of France.
A 13th-century masterpiece has been acquired by the Louvre after mistakenly and nearly being 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 painting was stumbled upon during a routine house clearance in 2019, The Times reports. "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 utterly unaware that she had been looking at an art treasure every day, believing it to be a worthless icon from Russia, and she planned to put it in the trash.
The buyers, 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 an export license.
The French government recognized the cultural significance of the masterpiece and declared it a national treasure. The Louvre was subsequently granted 30 months to raise the necessary funds for its acquisition. Recently, an agreement was reached between the museum and the owners, securing the artwork's place in the Louvre's collection.
Laurence des Cars, the president of the Louvre, expressed her excitement about the acquisition, stating that it was a "great joy" to have acquired a painting that "constitutes a crucial landmark in the history of art." The amount the Louvre paid for the painting remains undisclosed.
He 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," said des Cars.
The two paintings by Cimabue will be the subject of an exhibition in the spring of 2025.
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, created the artwork. Scholars believe the piece dates back 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 decorated their living room for decades was a Van Dyck that could be worth millions.
Meanwhile, 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.