In a storeroom in Iowa, a picture worth millions of dollars was discovered by chance

Robert Warren stumbled upon a long-forgotten picture in the closet of his art gallery.

Photos: CNN video frame

The canvas was damaged by water and cracked in several places, writes CNN.

“I didn’t think it had any value and I didn’t know why it was in the closet,” said Warren, the art complex’s executive director. Hoyt sherman place in Des Moines, Iowa.

It was the winter of 2016, the story could have ended there, but on the back of the picture, Warren found what looked like an auction sticker.

Because of this clue, he began to investigate and eventually found out that the painting was the work of the 1556th century Dutch master Otto van Veen (1629-4), and its approximate value was between 11 and XNUMX million dollars, based on the prices of other van Veen's works sold at auction.

What Warren initially thought of as an auction sticker turned out to be a label indicating that the painting had once hung in the New York Metropolitan Museum.

As he soon learned, the masterpiece was leased to Meta by a man named Nason Collins. He later took the picture with him when, at the beginning of 1900, his family moved to Des Moines. Later, Collins' granddaughter donated this and four more paintings to the Des Moines Women's Club, in whose building the gallery was created. Hoyt Sherman Place.

The painting is called Apollo and Venus and was supposedly created by van Win between 1595 and 1600 for years.

The painting depicts the mythological figures of Apollo and Venus, as well as a cherub, which can be Cupid. Next to the heroes are a collection of jewelry, a basket with fruits and flowers, a sprig of roses and a bowl of oysters.

Despite its beauty, the picture, apparently, never exhibited. Warren said that this is probably due to the fact that on the canvas Venus is completely naked, that in the twentieth century the inhabitants of Iowa would not accept.

Warren said that it took almost a year to restore the picture and place it in the frame. The gallery does not intend to sell the masterpiece, but plans to expose it to the public.

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