This painting by minimalist artist Lee Ufan has been discovered in an attic in south-western France by an expert who had actually turned up at the property to buy some wine.
It turned out that the French artist was friends had known Lee Ufan some 45 years earlier and the pair had swapped some of their work with the artwork now set to fetch up to EUR 700,000 at an upcoming auction.
French Auctioneer Emmanuel Layan, 40, who discovered the painting, said that he had originally gone to a retired French artist’s home in the city of Cognac, in the Charente department, in south-western France, “to appraise some wine”.
The numbered piece, called “From Point (in Paris)”, has been valued at between EUR 400,000 and EUR 700,000 (GBP 345,500 and GBP 604,600) and was painted by Lee Ufan, 84. It is set to go on auction in Bordeaux on 20th June.
Layan said: “We had been asked by a man’s son to appraise some wine in his father’s cellar.”
The auctioneer said that the man mentioned that his father, who has remained anonymous, was a retired painter with quite a collection.
So they went to the attic of the rural farmhouse where the paintings were stored and Layan said that he immediately knew that this was a remarkable painting, just by seeing it, a hunch that was confirmed after spotting Lee Ufan’s signature on it.
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