£5m 'lost' Watteau goes on show

Long lost paintings go back on public view today for the first time in nearly two centuries.

La Surprise, a painting by French artist Jean-Antoine Watteau, thought missing for almost 200 years, is going on show prior to auction at Christie's. Visitors to its headquarters in King Street, St James's, can also catch three drawings by the Spanish master Goya which were last recorded at a landmark auction in Paris in 1877.

All will be sold at the auction of Old Master and 19th-century works on Tuesday.

The Watteau was thought to have been destroyed and was previously known only from a copy in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace and through a contemporary engraving.

Experts found it in the corner of a drawing room in a British country house during a valuation last year. It is expected to make up to £5 million and could set a record price for the artist.

Richard Knight, of Christie's Old Master department, said: "This is not only one of the most extraordinary rediscoveries of recent years, but also presents the opportunity to buy one of the greatest paintings by the artist to have been on the market for decades."

The work was originally owned by Nicolas Henin, an adviser to the king of France and a friend of Watteau.

The Goyas had been missing, presumed lost, since 1877 when more than a hundred drawings taken from his private albums were auctioned.

The three works all represent different styles and subjects and are still in the mounts made for the 1877 sale. As they have never been framed or exposed to light, they are in excellent condition. They are being sold by a private Swiss collector individually. They are expected to make more than £2 million altogether.