- Feb 5, 2002
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The 16th-century depiction of the Madonna and Child was sold at an auction to help pay for the owner’s nursing home bills.
When Siobhan Tyrrell, an auctioneer working at British Auction House Dawsons Auctioneers, was asked to review any potentially valuable items inside the house of a 90-year-old woman in a London suburb, she was expecting to find at best some fine china. Instead, to her surprise, she found an original oil painting from the 16th century hiding in plain sight.
The painting, depicting the Madonna and Child, had been given to the woman by her father some 30 years earlier. The owner of the painting had no idea that the picture was an original work from a Renaissance master completed more than 400years ago. When, in her 90s, she was diagnosed with dementia, her family asked Dawsons Auctioneers to look for valuable items in her property to help finance her stay in a nursing home.
Continued below.
When Siobhan Tyrrell, an auctioneer working at British Auction House Dawsons Auctioneers, was asked to review any potentially valuable items inside the house of a 90-year-old woman in a London suburb, she was expecting to find at best some fine china. Instead, to her surprise, she found an original oil painting from the 16th century hiding in plain sight.
The painting, depicting the Madonna and Child, had been given to the woman by her father some 30 years earlier. The owner of the painting had no idea that the picture was an original work from a Renaissance master completed more than 400years ago. When, in her 90s, she was diagnosed with dementia, her family asked Dawsons Auctioneers to look for valuable items in her property to help finance her stay in a nursing home.
Continued below.
