Painting turns out to be a Van Gogh

An unsigned painting of a peasant woman, valued at $83 just days ago by a Japanese art house, has been identified as a previously unknown work by Vincent van Gogh.

Shinwa Art Auction says the oil painting, a dark profile of a frowning middle-aged woman in a white bonnet, is now worth at least $25,000.

The piece was deemed a Van Gogh on Thursday by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, two days before it was scheduled to be auctioned in Tokyo. Shinwa President Yoichiro Kurata said the bidding will go ahead.

The piece was part of the collection of Japanese artist Kazumasa Nakagawa, who died in 1991. Kurata said he was not sure when Nakagawa acquired the Van Gogh. Shinwa Art Auction took the piece on consignment last year.

The 16-by-13-inch artwork, painted between 1884 and 1885, is believed to have been restored twice in the 1950s, degrading its value. According to Kurata, the Van Gogh Museum said tests showed it to be extensively painted over, obscuring much of Van Gogh’s brushwork.