Lights in the darkness
A FEATURE of this past year has been the numerous important paintings, principally Old Masters, that have been discovered in unexpected places around France and then auctioned there for the sort of sums that it used to be assumed could only be attained in London or New York. The most notable, Caravaggio’s , sold by Marc Labarbe for unrevealed millions of Euros in Toulouse); the Rombouts mythological scene (), sold by Vassy Jalenques of Clermont-Ferrand for € 305,000 (£275,000); and the Cimabue () for € 24,180,000 (£20,837,115), by Dominique Le Coënt at Senlis, have now been joined by an Artemisia Gentileschi, a Gauguin and a portrait of the young Mozart attributed to Cignaroli. I will return to the last next week.
