Low-Key Woman Discovers Renaissance Masterpiece Randomly Hanging Above the Hotplate in Her Kitchen

A French woman discovered that the painting she had hanging in her kitchen is a Renaissance masterpiece worth millions. Perhaps the oversized decorative fork and spoon on the wall in your parents’ house is worth something, too?

The woman thought the 8” x 10” painting was just an old religious icon that she had hanging above a hotplate for cooking food, when she took it to her local auctioneers to be valued, The Guardian reports. Turns out it was a work by the 13th century Florentine master Cimabue, also known as Cenni di Pepo, that was believed to be lost.

While art historians are still debating the painting’s history, it is believed to be part of a large diptych dating back to 1280. Two other scenes from the work hang in the National Gallery in London and in the Frick Collection in New York. The work as a whole depicts the passion of Christ as well as his crucifixion. The newly-discovered painting is called “Christ Mocked”, and seems to fit in with the other eight scenes in the Cimabue series. “The painting was done by the same hand,” art expert Éric Turquin told French newspaper Le Figaro.

The painting by Cimabue, the artist who taught fresco-master Giotto how to paint, could be worth up to $6.5 million. If you’re in the market for a Renaissance masterpiece via a French kitchen, it will go up for sale at the Acteon auction house on October 27.