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Bargain Artworks for Italy

Three preserved paintings by Old Master Giambattista Tiepolo that have been hidden from public view will go on sale later this month at a fraction of their international market price.

However, the snag is that they can never leave Italy because the government believes that the paintings are of cultural and national significance, reports Reuters.

The Tiepolo paintings were commissioned by a family of lawyers for the Venetian palazzo in the 1720s and have remained in the family ever since.

Auction house Sotheby's is expected to offer the paintings for sale on May 30th and has had them on display in Milan and Rome over the past few weeks.

Sotheby's is offering the five paintings as a single lot and expects them to fetch €4 million at the auction.

"They always had the same owners so that was the first time they were shown to the public," Sotheby's spokeswoman Wanda Rotelli told Reuters.

"That's also why they are so well preserved, it is really extraordinary," she concluded.

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Updated: Wed, 17 May 2006 00:00:00

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