In of All Places....

From time to time great masterpieces turn up, having been hung in Russian dentists offices or shoved beneath couches that haven't been moved in 100 years. You've read the stories. They never cease to thrill me.

Well, up springs another one. Recently, a painting by the Italian master Sebastiano Ricci, long presumed to be forever lost has turned up in of all places - Texas. The painting titled "The Vision of St. Bruno" is a portrait of a beautiful town in Italy. In my opinion, it's so finely crafted upon first glance it appears to me more like a photograph than a 3 centuries old painting.

The journey from the hands of a European nobleman playboy to a fur trader and finally through generations of family to its current owner is fascinating, but of course cannot be fully known. The last known documentation of the painting was in a 1776 catalog of the collection of Count Francesco Algarotti, a Venetian playboy and art collector. The painting seems to have been passed along through descendants of Charles Rannells, a St. Louis lawyer. The family believes it was originally given to the family in lieu of payment for legal fees.

The painting will go to auction in late November through a Dallas-based auction house called Heritage Galleries, and is expected to garner at least $600K.