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A German student who bought a battered fold-up sofa at a flea market has sold a 17th century Italian painting she discovered tucked inside it for 19,600 euros (28,200 dollars).(AFP File Photo)
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BEIJING, Nov. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- A Berlin student who purchased a beat up, battered second-hand sofa bed found out she actually had been sleeping on a work of art when she discovered a baroque painting hidden inside.
The painting fetched 19,200 euros (27,660 U.S.
dollars) in Hamburg after the student found it hidden between the folding
sections of the couch she had paid 150 euros for last year, the auctioneers said
Tuesday.
"She used the sofa bed for a while before realizing
the painting was in there," said Michaela Derra, spokeswoman for the auction
house Ketterer Kunst, adding she did not know how the oil painting had wound up
inside the sofa.
The student got about 16,000 euros from the sale.
Experts believe the work, titled "Preparations for
the flight to Egypt," was painted between 1605 and 1610 by an unknown artist
with ties to Venetian painter Carlo Saraceni.
(Agencies)
