Italian Masterpiece Found in French Woman’s Kitchen Sells for Record $26.6 Million

An old painting found hanging in a French woman’s home sold for $26.6 million at auction Sunday, setting a world record for a pre-1500s work of art. An auctioneer discovered the painting hanging in the woman’s kitchen while inspecting her home in Compiegne in northern France, and said that she should get it appraised, according to the AP. The masterpiece, now titled “Christ Mocked,” has been attributed to 13th-century Italian painter Cimabue, and was sold to an anonymous buyer near Chantilly, France. “It’s a painting that was unique, splendid and monumental. Cimabue was the father of the Renaissance. But this sale goes beyond all our dreams,” Dominique Le Coent of Acteon Auction House told the AP. The painting was expected to sell anywhere between $4.4 million to $6.6 million, but Le Coent said experts were off because a Cimabue had never been put up for auction. “There’s never been a Cimabue painting on sale so there was no reference previously on how much it could make,” Le Coent said. The auction house said the woman will receive “the majority” of the sale money.