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Rare Titian painting found at bus stop expected to sell for $31.6 million at auction

The head of the UK auction house noted that the magnificent piece of religious art, based on the Gospel of Matthew, has been view by dukes, archdukes and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire

LONDON, April 4. /TASS/. Italian painter Titian Vecellio's (1488/1490-1576) painting Rest on The Flight into Egypt (1512), found in 2002 in a plastic bag with no frame at a bus stop in London seven years after being stolen, has been put up for auction at Christie's, The Times reported.

The painting, with an estimated value of 25 mln pounds ($31.6 million), will go up for auction by the British house for the first time in nearly 150 years.

Head of the UK auction house, Orlando Rock, said this magnificent piece of religious art, based on the Gospel of Matthew, has been view by dukes, archdukes and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. French Emperor Napoleon I Bonaparte (1769-1821) and Austrian Archduchess of the Habsburg dynasty, Queen Consort of Saxony Maria Theresia of Austria (1767-1827) were among its owners.

The master artist created this piece, one of his most well-known works, a little after turning 20 years old, so Christie's called it an early masterpiece, the auctioneers specified.

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