GIOVanni Boldini Painting Found in Paris Flat By Jack Phill

GIOVanni Boldini Painting Found in Paris Flat

By Jack Phillips
Epoch Times Staff Created: October 6, 2010 Last Updated: August 16, 2012

             

A Giovanni Boldini painting was recently found in a Paris flat and was sold for almost US$3 million. (Wikimedia Commons)

Giovanni Boldini, the Italian portrait and genre painter of the 19th century, painted a portrait of a beautiful woman that ended up in an untouched dusty Parisian flat for 70 years. This week, it sold for nearly $3 million, according to reports on Tuesday.

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The flat had been locked up and nearly abandoned for 70 years. An auctioneer entered the premises in June to inventory the deceased owner’s possessions, according to AFP.
The woman, who passed away at 91, paid for the upkeep of the flat for a long period of time and even though she didn’t ever use it. The painting was hung in the living room and depicts a woman named Marthe de Florian in pink clothing.
An auctioneer didn’t believe the painting was Boldini’s work and asked art expert Marc Ottavi to take a look at it.
“No reference books on Boldini mentioned the painting which had never been exhibited in public,” Ottavi said, adding that he found that Boldini had a relationship with de Florian.
“We had the link and I was then certain that it was a very fine Boldini,” Ottavi said.