Art for Money's Sake

The passion of Jesus Christ - his final suffering and crucifixion - has been depicted on thousands of paintings and artworks over the years. So for years and years, a nonagenarian female in Compiègne, France had just such a panel in her kitchen, and she thought it was just an old fakeroo.

And then...it was revealed to be a rare Renaissance treasure more than 700 years old.

Check your kitchen!

That painting she kept above her hot plate is likely the work of Cenni di Pepo, a/k/a Cimabue, a/k/a Big Pepo (just kidding).  Cimabue was a 13th-century Florentine painter. In June, the woman decided to sell off her house and its belongings, as people in their 90s will.

The auction company Actéon reported to her house to do an appraisal.

Philomène Wolf, an auctioneer, was given a week "to give an expert view on the house contents and empty it,” as she told Le Parisien. She found the painting and heard the distant sound of cash registers.

Wolf knew right away she had found a prize. “You rarely see something of such quality,” she explained. “I immediately thought it was a work of Italian primitivism. But I didn’t imagine it was a Cimabue.”

The painting is unsigned. Had old Cimabue signed it somewhere, it would have been easier to peg him as the artist. Wolf took the picture to Eric Turquin, who appraises old masters from his office in Paris. Turquin told her it was worth much more than she initially suspected.

The auction is coming up on October 27, and you might want to cash in your savings bonds if you're going over for it. The good people over at Actéon figure to hang a price tag between $4.4 million and $6.6 million on it.  Extra, if you want it framed and the tires rotated.

Rooting through the lady's house, the auctioneer found objects worth about $7200, and the rest went to the town dump.

As an inveterate dumpster diver, I wonder if that stuff is up for grabs!