Discovery What the specialists found

Discovery: What the specialists found

From the family secrets hidden beneath 16th-century paintings to masterpieces left unnoticed in bathrooms, an index of stories relating the incredible finds made by Christie's specialists

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Carved for the tomb of a king, and shrouded in mystery for more than 200 years

Commissioned in the 14th century by Charles V of France for his tomb, The Beauneveu Lions are to be offered on 6 July in London

Discovery: A pair of ‘very special’ Qianlong vases spotted on a mantelpiece

The rare and extremely important 18th-century vases that prompted one buyer to pay £14,725,000

Long missing, now found: Old Master discoveries offered during Classic Week

Christie’s specialists Emma Kronman, Alan Wintermute and François de Poortere on the unearthing of 5 exciting and important paintings

A long-lost treasure from a ‘paradise on Earth’​

Offered in The Exceptional Sale, the story of this precious della Robbia terracotta portrait reads like a movie script​

Rare Renaissance altarpiece to be auctioned for the first time since the mid-19th century

An exceptional work by Hugo van der Goes, featuring a central section in which the preparatory underdrawing has been revealed, is set to star in New York on April 27

Eugène Atget’s lost photographs of Paris

How Eugène Atget’s meticulous images of the city were rediscovered ‘almost by chance’ hidden among the archives of the artist André Derain

Uncovering the story of an icon given to the son of the Tsar

A Christie’s expert recounts the four-month journey to trace the provenance of an exceptional Russian icon

Discovery: The 200-year-old Chinese hat stand used as a lamp

Specialist Ivy Chan examines a remarkable piece of Chinese porcelain, previously used to illuminate a house in North Wales

Discovery: The Ming Dynasty ‘Dragon’ jar that was used as an umbrella stand

Our specialists examine an ‘incredibly important piece of Chinese porcelain’ that sold for more than $20 million

Rediscovered: The vast John Minton painting unseen in public for 65 years

John Minton’s exceptional Jamaican Village has been announced as a highlight of Christie’s November sales

Game of thrones: A quest to identify a mysterious 17th-century chair

The journey undertaken by three experts to trace the history of a remarkable piece of furniture

Discovery: The ‘Sleeping Beauty’ found hidden in a tower

Specialist William Russell recalls the ’incredibly exciting‘ discovery of a Renaissance marble missing for more than 200 years

5 minutes with... The earliest painted representation of the Turin Shroud

Specialist Eugenio Donadoni explains how he made a startling discovery among the illuminations in a 16th-century prayerbook

Discovery: The letter Jack Kerouac described as ‘The greatest piece of writing I ever saw’

Lost for 66 years, Neal Cassady’s 1950 ‘Joan Anderson letter’ influenced a generation of Beat writers

Discovery: Two halves of an unfinished Francis Bacon — reunited after 60 years

Specialist Angus Granlund on the exciting moment when the two halves were joined, and Bacon’s brief spell in St Ives

Great aunt Doris and the $70 Modigliani

The story of Mrs G. W. Fleming, the New York socialite who made one of the earliest purchases of a work by Modigliani in the US

Discovery: American furniture’s 300-year-old ‘miracle’

Specialist John Hays recalls the ‘wow’ moment when he came across the ‘Hadley’ chest 

Discovery: The 600-year-old sword that disappeared for decades

Specialist Howard Dixon on recognising the historic Harriet Dean sword, a piece that had evaded arms experts for decades

Discovery: In the name of the father

How infrared reflectography revealed the centuries-old family secrets beneath the surface of The Lamentation

7 recent ‘finds’ by our Islamic and Indian Art specialists

How much is that dish you throw your car keys into every night really worth? The singular stories of seven recent discoveries

Discovery: An unrecorded drawing by Paul Cézanne

A drawing found when a watercolour by the artist was removed from its backing, and the lights it sheds on the work that hid it

Discovery: ‘You’d better sit down, you’ve found something significant’

Simon Neal’s unearthing of the Chetwode Quadrant, the oldest English scientific instrument ever sold by Christie’s

Discovery: The Gauguin that ‘gave me goosebumps’

Specialist Tim Schmelcher tells of the moment he set eyes on an unrecorded Gauguin, and the secret he found inside its frame

Discovery: Robert Crosman’s paint-decorated pine chest-of-drawers

Christie’s specialist John Hays on finding a William and Mary paint-decorated chest-of-drawers, dated 1729

Discovery: The oldest bottle of rum

Wine specialist Noah May recounts discovering the oldest bottle of rum in existence at Harewood House

Discovery: Revelations from a damaged Monet

When a visitor to the National Gallery of Ireland put his hand through the canvas in 2012, conservators got an unusual opportunity

Discovery: The woman in the attic

After 85 years of mystery, how an important portrait by Scottish Colourist John Duncan Fergusson was rediscovered