A Dutch museum has unearthed a painting by Vincent van Gogh that lay unrecognised for years in a private collection after being given by the artist's mother to her landlord over a century ago.
The museum in the southern Dutch town of Breda said the oil painting - dubbed
Houses in The Hague
- had been uncovered while researching an exhibition on Van Gogh and how much of his early work had been scattered throughout the area.
"We are convinced this piece is genuine. A lot of Vincent's early studies were left in Breda by his mother. The painting was among a vast collection belonging to a trustworthy and fanatical collector," Breda Museum researcher Mr Ron Dirven said.
"The piece at some time also belonged to the nephew of the landlord of Vincent's mother. She must have given it to her landlord and this gives us further reason to believe it is genuine," he added.
The Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam said it was aware of the find but could not confirm whether it was truly a painting by the Dutch master until it had the chance to examine it.
Mr Dirven said the painting was 24 cm by 16 cm (9.5 by 6.3 inches) in size and depicted a row of small houses with red roofs. The houses stand against a light coloured sky and there are bales of hay in the foreground.
He declined to place a value on the piece but said that it would not be worth as much as Van Gogh's later works. In June an oil painting of a vase of flowers by Van Gogh fetched $7 million at an auction in London.
This year is the 150th anniversary of Van Gogh's birth. He shot himself in 1890 after a scandal-filled and tragic life.