--- title: Lucky Woman Discovers Renaissance Masterpiece in Her Kitchen description: The work of art by the 13th-century painter Cimabue could be worth up to $6.5 million canonical: https://time.com/5684787/renaissance-masterpiece-kitchen/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-09-24T14:38:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:00:24.475Z og:title: Lucky Woman Randomly Discovers Renaissance Masterpiece in Her Kitchen og:description: The painting by Cimabue could be worth up to $6.5 million, experts say og:url: https://time.com/5684787/renaissance-masterpiece-kitchen/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe91b843173042ae/698a035c457a525ed6d62d6c/frenchkitchen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2976 og:image:height: 1674 og:image:alt: A colorful modern French kitchen fully furnished og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Lucky Woman Randomly Discovers Renaissance Masterpiece in Her Kitchen twitter:description: The painting by Cimabue could be worth up to $6.5 million, experts say twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe91b843173042ae/698a035c457a525ed6d62d6c/frenchkitchen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Low-Key Woman Discovers Renaissance Masterpiece Randomly Hanging Above the Hotplate in Her Kitchen > Sponsored content. 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Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Sep 24, 2019 2:38 PM UTC  Newly remodeled Kitchen with a french farmhouse theme Newly remodeled Kitchen with a french farmhouse theme CapturedNuance:Getty Images/iStockphoto by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Sep 24, 2019 2:38 PM UTC A French woman discovered that the [painting](https://time.com/5625470/what-happened-to-bob-ross-paintings/) 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](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/24/woman-discovers-renaissance-masterpiece-in-her-kitchen). 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](https://time.com/5672506/hitler-art-activism/) historians are still debating the [painting](https://time.com/5646109/beyonce-portrait-smithsonian-gallery/)’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](https://time.com/5604018/missing-da-vinci-painting-mbs-yacht/) 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,”](http://www.lefigaro.fr/culture/encheres/cimabue-decouverte-exceptionnelle-d-un-inedit-du-maitre-italien-a-compiegne-20190923) 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. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5684787/renaissance-masterpiece-kitchen/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5684787/renaissance-masterpiece-kitchen/"},"headline":"Low-Key Woman Discovers Renaissance Masterpiece Randomly Hanging Above the Hotplate in Her Kitchen","datePublished":"2019-09-24T14:38:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:00:24.475Z","description":"The painting by Cimabue could be worth up to $6.5 million","url":"https://time.com/5684787/renaissance-masterpiece-kitchen/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","Art","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe91b843173042ae/698a035c457a525ed6d62d6c/frenchkitchen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe91b843173042ae/698a035c457a525ed6d62d6c/frenchkitchen.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A colorful modern French kitchen fully furnished","caption":"A colorful modern French kitchen fully furnished","creditText":"CapturedNuance:Getty Images/iStockphoto","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5684787/renaissance-masterpiece-kitchen/","name":"Low-Key Woman Discovers Renaissance Masterpiece Randomly Hanging Above the Hotplate in Her Kitchen"}}]}] ```