Art Found After 160 years

CBC News Canada reports that a painting by French master Jean-Antoine Watteau, missing for 160 years, has been found and will be going on sale with a list price of between £3 and £6 million. "It was found during a routine valuation in the corner of a small sitting room in an English country house," said a spokesman for Christie's art auction house late Monday. La It will go on the art auction block in July 2008. La Surprise was painted around 1718 and has been described as one of the most beautiful works done by Watteau. The painting features a seated actor playing a guitar glancing over at a couple in a passionate embrace. The only other known version of the piece is a copy in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace. "I've been here for 20-odd years and this is one of the most exciting pictures that we, as a team, have seen come to the art market. We all live for this type of picture," said James Bruce-Gardyne, Christie's director of Old Master paintings, in the Times of London newspaper. Bruce-Gardyne says the owner, who wishes to remain anonymous, had no idea what was sitting in his living room. Bruce-Gardyne described Watteau as "an incredibly fragile artist in the way he applied paint," using feathery touches in his technique. The current record price paid stands at £2.4 million for Watteau's Le Conteur in 2000. Watteau, who died of tuberculosis in 1721 at age 37, is credited with sparking a revival in colour and movement in painting, which eventually became known the Rococo style. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art