Missing Gaugain Masterpiece Hanged In Autoshop For Decades

Missing Gaugain Masterpiece Hanged In Autoshop For Decades

A missing Gauguin masterpiece was found hanging in the kitchen of an Italian auto worker who had no idea that the white boul with fruit on his wall was worth a fortune. The worker admitted he never knew of Gauguin nor of his painting, which he bought at a Italian Railways auction held for abandoned items.

This Wednesday, Italian police’s art theft squad unveiled the recovered artwork along with another recovered painting by Pierre Bonnard. Both paintings were bought in 1975 for just under $100 said Maj. Massimiliano Quagliarella.

The unassuming owner said that the Gauguin painting fitted perfectly with the kitchen decor. The two paintings were hanged for nearly 40 years in the autoworkers home in Turin and later in Sicily after the man retired.

According to Italian police specialists the net worth of the two paintings was somewhere between $14 and $40 million. The two paintings were stolen from a British collector’s home in 1970. According to police, the paintings made it on a Paris to Turin train but where abandoned. Railway employees placed the paintings in lost and found being sold at an auction later that year.

The two paintings called “Fruit on a Table with a Small Dog” and “Woman with Two Armchairs” were discovered when the autoworker’s son had them evaluated after his father passed away.

Posted by Kade Quinn on Friday April 04 2014, 3:48 AM EST. Ref: nydailynews. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Entertainment, Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0