COLORADO.- Christie’s announced Friday that a masterpiece by John William Waterhouse turned up in a log cabin in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado. The work had disappeared for more than a hundred years.
The work is titled Cleopatra and will be sold next month at a Christie’s auction. It is estimated to fetch up to £500,000. The work went on show Friday.
The American owner of the work thought the work was "pretty and rather sexy", but had no idea it was Victorian or that it might be valuable.
The American collector acquired the painting together with the fixtures and fittings of a building, when he acquired some business premises in the 1960s.
Martin Beisly, Christie’s senior director, flew to Colorado to see the work. He said: “Scholars knew about the picture, but had no idea where it was and even thought it might have been destroyed."