When Japanese artist Kazumasa Nakagawa died in 1991, his family waited over 10 years before deciding to auction off his small private at collection. One of the pieces, a dark, medium-sized portrait of a frowning woman, was initially thought to be nearly worthless, and the auction house owner was prepared to start the bidding at US$83.

　　But Yoichiro Kurata had a hunch. The painting’s subject resembled that of several paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, so Kurata sent the painting to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Using X-rays and other tests, the museum experts soon had an answer: the painting was a previously unknown Van Gogh.

　　So rather than start off at US$83, the bidding started at nearly US$42,000 and the painting was quickly sold for over US$500,000 to a small Japanese art museum. The price, while high for any painting, is relatively low for a Van Gogh, which have been known to sell for tens of millions of dollars at auction. In fact, three of the ten most valuable paintings in the world were painted by the Dutch artist, including Portrait of Doctor Gachet which set a world auction price record when it sold for over US$82 million in 1990.

　　Why did the newly-discovered Van Gogh sell so cheaply? X-rays showed that much of the original painting, which was probably done in 1884, was covered by new layers of paint, applied as recently as the 1950s. Experts are guessing that someone applied the new paint in an attempt to restore the painting. However, the effert was exactly the opposite-the new paint greatly reduced the quality (and the value) of the painting.