Rediscovered painting by Brueghel yields almost 8 tons in Paris

auction house DaguerreThe accidentally discovered painting by Brueghel

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 20:42

A rediscovered painting by the Flemish painter Pieter Brueghel de Jonge (1564-1638) has fetched 780,000 euros at an auction in Paris. The work hung behind a door in the television room of a French family for years.

The family had purchased it in the year 1900, but over the years the descendants had forgotten what a valuable painting it was. “They affectionately called it ‘De Brueghel’, but had no idea that it was an original work,” an auctioneer from auction house Daquerre Val de Loira tells the AP news agency.

The work l’Avocat du Village was painted between 1615 and 1617 and shows a bustling legal office in a rural village. Village life is a theme that Brueghel often captured.

The painting is 112 centimeters high by 184 centimeters wide, the second largest work by Brueghel the Younger. He was the son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (without H in his surname), one of the most important artists of the Flemish Renaissance and painter of The Tower of Babel.

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