By Kenza Gros Desormeaux
Published on 10 Mar 21 @ 12:55 pm
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The clothes do not make the man. Found in an attic in shabby, a board was sold to 20 000 euros during a auction online organized at Montastruc-la-Conseillère, near Toulouse. The canvas, of which the artist remains unknown, attracted the lust of two buyers strangers who indulged fierce battle online.
A mysterious painting
The work was found in a grenier, “By a person from a neighboring department”, according to the auctioneer Stanislas Machoïr. Its origin and its painter remain unknown. In addition, “it only dates from the fin du 19e century “, and does not visibly present no rarity which justifies such enthusiasm according to the expert, who evokes a painting “in very bad condition, with a grand accident in the web ”. She was indeed torn …
€ 20,000 at auction
Consequently, the starting price was only 20 euros. Qualified as “ugly and damaged” by Stanislas Machoïr, the painting was finally awarded for the modest sum of … 20 000 euros, is 1000 times his initial estimate, after a fierce battle between an Englishman and an American! The auctioneer says:
“It had already been put on sale for the first time at 20 euros, and nobody wanted it. This time, these two buyers set their sights there and raised the stakes to 20,000 euros. In 40 years of career, this is the first time that such a thing has happened. Yet I have sold more than 50,000 paintings between Toulouse and Versailles! “
According to the auctioneer, the canvas, found in the region, would already have quits the territory French.
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