$26 Million Masterpiece Is Found in Elderly Woman's Kitchen, but France Is Blocking Its Export

“I had a week to give an expert view on the house contents and empty it,” appraiser Philomène Wolf toldLe Parisienof the discovery, theGuardianreported. “I had to make room in my schedule … if I didn’t, then everything was due to go to the dump.”

Wolf said she noticed the tiny 10-inch painting right away.

“You rarely see something of such quality,” she recalled. “I immediately thought it was a work of Italian primitivism. But I didn’t imagine it was a Cimabue.”

The painting was then sent to experts at Cabinet Turquin in Paris, who used infrared reflectography to confirm the artwork was part of a larger piece from 1280. The woman and her family thought the painting was simply an old icon passed down from Russia and thought it held little value.

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“There are only 11 of his paintings in the world — they are rare,” he added.

But after the auction, the French Advisory Committee on National Treasures decided to block the export of the valuable painting, which now means it will remain in the country for another 30 months.

AsCNNnotes, this gives the French government time to raise funds to purchase the painting for the nation.

According toNPR, the government hopes to name the painting a “national treasure” that should stay in the country in order to “enrich our national collections.”

source: people.com