The painting - "lost" for 400 years and entitled A Young Boy Peeling Fruit

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A previously unknown work by Flemish Old Master Pieter Brueghel the
Younger - identified during a routine insurance valuation - fetched
£793,500 at the Phillips auction house in London today.
The anonymous owner, whose family acquired the picture in the 19th
century, was aware who painted La Retour De La Kermesse, depicting
revellers at a festival, but had no idea of its current market value.
Richard Kay, of Phillips in Winchester, recognised it as a work which
had never been exhibited and was unknown to scholars. Brian Koetser, head
of the Old Masters department in London, believes the work to be one of
Brueghel the Younger's masterpieces.
At the same sale, an oil painting identified as a Caravaggio after
months of painstaking detective work, failed to exceed £170,000 and the
picture remained unsold.
The painting - "lost" for 400 years and entitled A Young Boy Peeling
Fruit - is believed to be the first known canvas of the Italian Old
Master.
It was cautiously estimated by Phillips "in excess of £235,000",
although based on a recent valuation by the Getty Museum of another recent
Caravaggio discovery, some observers believed the picture could have
fetched up to £10 million.
A spokeswoman for Phillips said later there had been some after-sale
interest for the Caravaggio but late tonight no sale had been confirmed.
PA