A rare painting from the Italian master Cimabue was found hanging in the kitchen of a woman outside Paris, local media reported.
“Christ Mocked,” a work by the 13th century pre-Renaissance painter, was part of a larger display and could be valued between $4.4 to 6.6 million, art expert Éric Turquin told French newspaper Le Figaro.
The painting was found in the town of Compiègne after an auctioneer saw the work, which the woman had hung directly above a hotplate, and told her to have it appraised, said Stephane Pinta, a painting specialist with the Turquin gallery in Paris. The woman had thought the work was just an old religious work, the French news agency AFP reported.
The painting, about 8 inches by 11 inches, was part of a diptych that was broken up and included eight scenes from the Passsion of the Christ, Le Figaro reported. Two other sections, painted around 1280, are displayed at the Frick Collection in New York and the National Gallery in London.
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