Mystery masterpiece emerges from dusty Paris flat FEATURE 10/08/2010

Mystery masterpiece emerges from dusty Paris flat

FEATURE

10/08/2010
PARIS — When an auctioneer entered a dust-covered old Parisian flat in June to take inventory of the deceased owner’s possessions, he had the impression of creeping into Sleeping Beauty’s castle.

In the gloom of the flat that had been shut-up for decades, he came across a portrait unknown to art experts of a beautiful woman by one of 19-century Paris’ most prized portrait artists, Italian Giovanni Boldini.
“There was a smell of old dust,” said auctioneer Olivier Choppin-Janvry.

The painting recently fetched 2.1 million euros ($2.9 million) in frenzied bidding, making a record for one of the artist’s works.

The flat’s last occupant, who was the grand-daughter of Boldini’s muse, had shut it up before World War II to go live in the south of France and never returned..... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101008com7.html