Classic canvas art springs huge cash surprise
Published on: 19-Jul-2007
A piece of canvas art put up for sale at a small Leicestershire auction house with an estimate of just £200 has sparked huge global interest after selling for more than £200,000 and being touted as being worth much, much more.Lot 403 at the sale at Gilding's auctioneers in Market Harborough was a canvas art portrait thought to be from the 18th century, reports the Guardian.
A pair of keen bidders in the audience clearly knew differently, however, tussling it out between themselves for many minutes before the work was finally sold for £205,000. The lot is now thought to be one of the classic canvas art creations of Italian master Titian, painted between 1510 and 1520, and would be expected to fetch around £5 million if put up for auction again.
"The atmosphere in the room became very tense. The bidding just went on and on," commented auctioneer Mark Gilding.
"Our opinion was that it was 18th century, after an early Italian artist. Obviously a couple of people thought differently: two people on the day turned up and battled it out."
The identity of the canny auction winner is not yet known.
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