A SCULPTURE of Cupid by the 18th century Italian Antonio Canova that was found covered in paint and moss at the bottom of a garden in the southwest of England is expected to be auctioned for a seven figure sum, Sotheby's said yesterday.
The life sized marble statue of a nude adolescent male is to be auctioned on July 4th in London. Sotheby's said a Canova work had not been auctioned for 60 years.
The sculpture, executed between 1790 and 1791 for Irish banker's son John David Latouche was lost for 150 years before being discovered in 1992 in the garden. It was beneath moss and dirt and completely covered in white paint.
Since being cleaned, only those parts of the statue which were originally not polished show some weathering. No details of the owner or location of the find were available.
The last Canova life size sculpture to be auctioned was another Cupid figure in July 1937. Most of his works are in museums or galleries and there are no more than eight statues and four marble busts in private hands.
The purchase of Canova's The Three Graces for $7.6 million by the Getty museum in California in 1990 sparked a five year row. The British government barred its export to give British art lovers a chance to match the Getty bid.
The funds were eventually raised and the statue now belongs jointly to London's Victoria and Albert Museum and to the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh.
A bust by the same artist estimated to be worth £695,000 is currently the subject of a similar battle to stop it leaving Britain.
The Cupid statue was commissioned early in Canova's career in 1791. The statue was thought to have been in north Wales where Latouche's descendants lived.
It was bought in 1992 by someone who did not know its worth. Two years later its distinguished past came to light after historian Hugh Honour published an essay on Canova's "Amorini", or Cupid.