Paris, March 28 / BNA / A rediscovered painting by the Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel the Younger from the 17th century, hidden for years in a family home, will be auctioned in Paris on Tuesday, and is expected to fetch $600,000 ($647,340). 800 thousand euros.
One of Bruegel’s largest known works, at 112 cm high by 184 cm wide, is La Vocate du Village Advocate (Village Advocate) and was little known in the art world as the newest generation of the family to have owned it since the 20th century. It was fake, according to Reuters.
The family, who wished to remain anonymous, asked Malou de Lussac of Daguerre Val de Loire auctioneers to estimate the value of their home, but instead discovered a masterpiece.
“I found this painting at home, behind the door of the TV room,” de Lussac said, calling it one of the biggest surprises of his career.
“I began to appreciate this room and when I came back, I saw this painting. It was a very good surprise for me.”
De Lussac said he believes the artwork was bought as an original, but that over several generations it lost its authenticity completely within the family.
“This is unbelievable,” he said. We give them back that authenticity by saying, “Actually, your artwork is real.”
Brueghel the Younger, whose father Bruegel the Elder died when he was five, did not use one of his father’s compositions for this painting as he usually did, but revisited the popular theme of the village lawyer.
Art experts have estimated that the artwork was painted between 1615 and 1617.
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