£90,000 for Sturton painting at auction

A PAINTING by a 19th Century French master which was discovered hanging on the wall of a home near Gainsborough has sold for £90,000 at auction.

The 20 by 8 inch oil on canavs work by Henri Fantin-Latour depicting roses was found during a house clearance at the home of an antiques dealer in Sturton-by-Stow.

It went under the hammer at Unique Auctions New Year’s Day sale in Lincoln and after frantic bidding was sold to a commission bidder from America.

Terry Dean, 69, from Unique Auctions, said he was staggered by the find.

“I was called to a house clearance where antique dealers had once lived and on the wall was this painting,” he said,

“In the back of my mind I knew something about Fantin-Latours. I then started to research him and I got totally wrapped up in it.”

Two years ago Christie’s sold a Fantin-Latour painting called Flowers and Fruits for more than £1million.

Fantin-Latour was a contemporary of Manet, Monet and Renoir, whom he painted in his portraits, and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1862.

At the same auction a thank you letter written by Princess Diana to a nine-year-old Lincoln boy called Roger two months before the Royal Wedding was sold for £425 to an internet bidder.

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