Rediscovered Art Sales

A number of "lost" works of art have been rediscovered this year, and London's top auction houses have put them on display prior to being auctioned next week. Sotheby's in New Bond Street is showing Turner's Pope's Villa At Twickenham, which had been gathering grime on a wall in Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire for 40 years and hasn't been on the open market since 1827. Frans Hals' Portrait of Willem van Heythuysen is also on show. Christie's is offering Jean-Antoine Watteau's La Surprise and, for me the most exciting find of the year, a trio of sketches by Francisco de Goya: Down They Come, Repentance (CLICK) and The Constable Lampinos Stitched Inside A Dead Horse (CLICK). Estimated values for these important, historic works range from £2m (Goya) to £7m (Turner). Such values are feeble when compared to the insane bids Philistine fat cats put in for modern tripe by Bacon or Picasso.
Historical note: Constable Lampiños survived a night in the body of the horse, so the revolting peasants injected him with lime from a syringe to kill him!