Copy of masterpiece turns out to be real and yields huge amount of money

A pleasant surprise for a French family. A fake painting by the Southern Dutch painter Pieter Brueghel the Younger turned out to be an original after all. 'De Boerenjongens' fetched a considerable amount at an auction.

For years, the family in the north of France regarded the family heirloom as a copy of the painter Pieter Brueghel the Younger, the eldest son of painter Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Mayken Coecke, who became a master in 1585. He painted landscapes, religious subjects and fantasy subjects, but also often copied his father's paintings, who was one of the most important painters of the Flemish Renaissance.

Malo de Lussac, appraiser-auctioneer at Daguerre auction house, went to the family's home in October 2022 to view various artifacts and estimate how much they would fetch under the hammer. Many of the artefacts made little impression, but full of dust and hidden behind a door he spotted the Brueghel. The family informed Lussac that the painting had been considered a copy for years, but he still sent it to a Bruegel expert. In December they received the news that it was a real painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, which was painted between 1615 and 1617.

Although some may have decided to keep the painting after discovering its history, the former owner went ahead and sold it at auction, where someone snapped up Brueghel's 'The Farmers' Boys' for €775 million.

Also read: The five most expensive Dutch paintings ever sold