A lost 'masterpiece', long believed to be a fake and kept hanging on the back of a door, has been revealed as an authentic Brueghel painting valued at £700,000.
The painting L'Avocat du village (The Village Lawyer) is being sold in Paris today having been discovered by auctioneers while valuing a family home.
The family, who wish to remain anonymous, had kept the famous artwork in the house 'behind a door in the television room', according to Malo de Lussac of auctioneers Daguerre Val de Loire.
The painting is one of Pieter Brueghel The Younger's largest known works, measuring 112cm high and 184cm wide, and was unknown in the art world because the most recent generation of the family who had owned it since the 1900s thought it was fake.
Experts now say it is likely to fetch 600,000 euros (£527,561) to 800,000 euros (£703,414) at auction.
The painting L'Avocat du village, or The Village Lawyer, by Pieter Brueghel The Younger, estimated to have been painted before 1618, on display at the Drouot auction house in Paris
Art expert Stephane Pinta points to the rare painting also known as the 'Payment of the Yearly Dues' or 'The Peasants' Lawyer' by Pieter Brueghel The Younger
'I started estimating this room and when I turned back, I saw this painting. It was a very good surprise for me,' de Lussac said.
He believes the artwork was bought as an authentic one, but over several generations the family came to believe that it was a fake.
'And that's what's incredible,' he said. 'We are giving them back this authenticity by saying "in fact your artwork is real".'
Brueghel the Younger, whose father Brueghel the Elder died when he was five, did not use one of his father's compositions for this painting as he usually did, but revisited the popular theme of a village lawyer.
Art experts estimated that the painting was created between 1615 and 1617.
Breughel was born in Brussels in 1564 and died in Antwerp in 1638.
The Flemish painter was registered as a master in the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp.
He later took on nine apprentices, and was considered an authority in his craft.
Despite his popularity, Breughel was probably quite poor and was unable to benefit from the sort of prices his work attracts today.
Previous auctions of his art have fetched millions of pounds.
The Massacre of the Innocents, based on part of the Gospel of Matthew but depicted in a wintery scene in the Netherlands during the Eighty Years' War, was valued at between £1million and £1.5million.
Visitors admire the 'Payment of the Yearly Dues', also known as 'The Peasants' Lawyer' by Pieter Brueghel The Younger, thought to have been painted before 1618, at the Drouot auction house in Paris
Gallery assistants with The Massacre of the Innocents by Pieter Brueghel the Younger (1564 - 1638), estimated between £1,000,000 - £1,500,000, during a photocall for highlights from a sale at Christies in London
The Crucifixion or The Calvary by Brueghel the Younger in the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
In 2017, a lost Jackson Pollock painting found in a garage was valued at $15million.
It was discovered when an Arizona man was helping a neighbour move house.
The pair initially called an auctioneer to value a signed LA Lakers poster worth about $300. However, they all got a shock when he found the missing artwork at the bottom of a stack of belongings and said: 'God, that looks like a Jackson Pollock!'
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