SPRING CLEANING

Historic Painting Found in Forgotten Corner of French Family Home

The family apparently didn’t know they were holding onto such a coveted piece until auctioneers discovered the dusty work.

One of 17th century Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s largest known works was discovered in a dusty corner of a family home and will now be auctioned in Paris for upward of $650,000. The family had asked auctioneers to help determine the value of their home, and the auctioneers then stumbled on the piece. The painting, “L’Avocat du village” (“The Village Lawyer”), is thought to have been painted between 1615 and 1617. But the family who owned it didn’t even think it was a real Breueghel, according to Malo de Lussac, who works with auctioneers Daguerre Val de Loire. “And that’s what’s incredible,” he told Reuters. “We are giving them back this authenticity by saying ‘in fact your artwork is real.’”