US lady buys Renoir at flea market
10 Sep 2012 4:00 AM GMT
A painting unknowingly bought by a woman at a flea market in the US for less than USD 50 has turned out to be a rare bargain - a work by French master Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
The painting by French impressionist is now set to be auctioned later this month and is expected to fetch USD 1,00,000.
It was bought by a woman as part of a box lot that included a doll and a plastic cow, and cost about USD 50, the BBC News reported.
A Renoir plaque on the frame prompted the woman to have it analysed by a local auction house.
She took it to a Virginia auction house where experts said they believed it was Renoir's Paysage Bords de Seine - a river scene - from about 1879.
It is believed the painting was bought from a Paris gallery in 1926.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841?1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style.
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