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One man’s garage junk is now an art historian’s treasure.
A dusty painting sitting under a garage workbench just traded places — straight into the Renaissance big leagues with a price tag fit for a Medici.
Without a clue of its origins, the Oxfordshire local who snagged the priceless artwork years ago unknowingly owned a masterpiece by 15th-century Italian painter Pietro Vannucci, better known as Perugino, once considered a contemporary of Leonardo da Vinci.
The long-forgotten panel, dubbed Madonna and Child, sparked a frenzy after hitting the website of JS Fine Arts in Banbury, where international collectors jammed the phone lines and sent staff scrambling.
When the bidding finally kicked off, the battle was as dramatic as a Vatican fresco reveal: 15 minutes of online, phone, and in-room chaos that ended with a private buyer shelling out £685,000 — roughly $750,000 — and smashing the auction house’s previous record of £285,000.
“When the hammer fell, there was a hush, then applause,” Joe Smith, the principal auctioneer, said in a statement. “It was one of those moments every auctioneer dreams of.”
Not bad for something that spent years collecting dust next to power tools.
Experts believe the serene portrait could be the real deal from Perugino, one of the most celebrated painters of the Italian Renaissance.
Smith said the surge of interest “surpassed anything I’ve ever seen.”
He added, “We knew it was special, but the response was beyond anything we expected. The longer you looked, the more you realized the quality of the workmanship and the elegance of the Renaissance detailing.”
Nicknamed “Il Perugino,” he was once considered on par with the “Mona Lisa” creator himself and was tapped — alongside Sandro Botticelli — to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel long before Michelangelo muscled in with his ceiling.
Perugino’s graceful figures and soft landscapes heavily influenced his star pupil Raphael, who eventually overshadowed the master and claimed the Renaissance spotlight.
Even Michelangelo reportedly dismissed Perugino as “clumsy” (as per the Victoria & Albert Museum) — though collectors in 2024 seem to disagree.
The new owner, who remains anonymous, has reportedly sent the work to a conservator as research continues into its origins.
If authenticated, it could join the ranks of Perugino’s prized pieces housed in top museums — including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, which bought one of his frescoes back in 1862.
And speaking of surprise Madonna-and-Child discoveries, another holy image has been stirring up divine drama on the other side of the world.
As previously reported by The Post, a bargain-bin Mary-and-Jesus print in Honolulu has believers convinced it’s doing more than collecting dust — it’s weeping myrrh.
The $20 portrait, originally plucked from a Toronto clearance pile, is now displayed at Holy Theotokos of Iveron Russian Orthodox Church in Hawaii’s capital, where parishioners say it’s mysteriously oozing the fragrant resin.
Myrrh — basically biblical bubblegum, the sweet sap the Wise Men once schlepped — has been hailed by believers as a cure-all for everything from aching joints to blindness to full-blown cancer.
So it’s no wonder the sticky spectacle is drawing crowds from around the globe.
In 2010, the church’s priest, Father Nectarios Yangson, said the myrrh aroma was once so powerful it had his cat standing upright on its hind legs in response to it.
Ultimately, from a £685,000 Renaissance stunner to a bargain-bin Mary that cries myrrh, it seems Madonna-and-Child artworks are having a moment — some fetch fortunes, others just leak them.
