A Spanish masterpiece found lurking in a recent consignment of paintings from a 19th Century British artist to Bonham’s, London, turns out to be a portrait of a fleshy gentleman done by Velázquez in the mid-1600’s. The discovery is expected to sell in the $5m range at an Old Master’s sale in December. Before the documentation, they thought it might go for $500 at auction.Last year, a number of works by Matthew Shepperson, were consigned by relatives to Bonham’s Oxford office. The Velázquez was spotted and subjected to months of exhaustive testing and analysis. A Velázquez authority wrote: “the particularised likeness and recognisably lifelike texture, weight and colours of the fleshy face speak of the actual encounter between subject and painter; while the style and technical brilliance of the representation itself betrays its author.”
Read more at The Telegraph
