Portrait Bought Online for $500 Deemed a Lost De Kooning
- August 24, 2016 13:12
On the BBC series Fake or Fortune? art expert Philip Mould helped a Belgian couple discover that a portrait they bought online for 450 euros was a lost early work by Dutch abstract artist Willem de Kooning.
The painting of a child could be worth £50,000 ($113,000), say the experts.
Since the de Kooning Foundation in the US does not authenticate works of art, Mould did his own research.
Mould said: "Fortunately the evidence that then emerged was transformative. A junk shop-type speculation can now be identified as an early work by one of the most celebrated abstract artists of the 20th century."
![Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), After Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) (Italian [Venetian], c. 1488–1576), Rape of Europa, 1628–29. Oil on canvas, 71 7/8 x 79 3/8 in.](/images/c/e2/2e/Jan20_Rape_of_Europa100x100_c.jpg "Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), After Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) (Italian [Venetian], c. 1488–1576), Rape of Europa, 1628–29. Oil on canvas, 71 7/8 x 79 3/8 in.")
