Vincent Van Gogh’s painting which sold in a farmhouse near Stafford for £4 is ready to be auctioned this month where is expected to fetch up to €15 million.
Peasant Woman in Front of a Farmhouse, painted by the 33-year-old artist in 1885 four years before his death, is believed to be one of the first ever works Van Gogh offered for sale. It was bought in the 1960s by an Italian resident in north London from a junk shop for £45.
Luigi Grosso spotted the painting was signed “Vincent” and while the shop owner assumed it was by an artist with that surname, the buyer suspected that it might be the real thing.
The painting has been authenticated by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which dates it to July 1885, when the artist was living with his parents in the Brabant village of Nuenen.
This masterpiece will try to find its new owner later this month at the European Fine Art Fair in Maastricht, Netherlands, by British dealer Dickinson.