Oil painting valued at just £50 fetched £160,000 at auction amid speculation that the late-Renaissance style piece could be the work of an ‘Italian master’
- The oil painting was valued at £50 to £80 but sold for £160,000 at auction
- It’s possible the late-Renaissance painting was painted by an ‘Italian master’
- It depicts a mother and child and caused a frenzy in the Norfolk auction room
An oil painting priced at just £50 sold for £160,000 yesterday amid speculation it could be the work of an ‘Italian master’.
The late-Renaissance style painting of the Madonna and child, pictured, was listed with an estimate of £50 to £80.
But a bidding frenzy erupted at the auction rooms of TW Gaze in Diss, Norfolk, as international bids poured in over the phone and online.
The ultimate winning bid will increase to a whopping £200,000 with auctioneers’ fees included.
The auction house said its unsuspecting owner had ‘no expectations as to the merits of the painting’, which is by an unknown artist.
The late-Renaissance style painting of the Madonna and child, pictured, was listed with an estimate of £50 to £80
Involved in the early bidding, antiques enthusiast Ian Honeyman told ITV News he suspected it had been painted by an ‘Italian master’, and could be worth even more once restored.
‘I’d expect it would turn up in a London auction house, where it could go for over £1million,’ he said.
Mr Honeyman told ITV News: ‘I saw this painting and thought that it looked really interesting: it’s got a good age to it, it’s well painted, good subject matter – the Madonna and child – so I thought I’d try to buy it for its £50-80 estimate.
‘Like a lot of people I popped down and was very, very surprised when the prices started to get into the tens of thousands.’
He added that the seller must’ve been excited, likely having had it ‘under his or her bed for many years,’ without realising its value.
The painting was described in the auction house catalogue as ‘a 19th-century oil on canvas depicting mother and child’.
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