A painting bought at an auction in London turned out to be a lost masterpiece worth about 16 million hryvnias. Photo.

A painting bought at an auction in London for two thousand pounds (100 thousand hryvnias) turned out to be a lost work by Canadian impressionist Helen McNicoll, The Bean Harvest. The real value of the masterpiece is more than 300 thousand pounds (16 million hryvnias).

The buyer, David Taylor, discovered the artist's signature after taking the work out of the frame. The story of the discovery is told in episode 12 of the BBC One documentary series Fake or Fortune, which explores the provenance and attribution of famous works of art.

With the help of the show's team, which includes hosts Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould, the buyer was able to prove the authenticity of the painting.

Fiona and Phillip investigated a painting of women in a field that was sold as a work in the "style" of Helen Galloway McNicoll, one of Canada's most prominent impressionist painters of the early 20th century.

The image was listed in the catalog as "unsigned," but the buyer, David, noticed that there was a signature under the frame. So he turned to experts to find out the truth about the painting's origin.

The work underwent several studies and a professional opinion stated that this beautiful painting of women working in the field was a lost masterpiece, "The Bean Harvest" by Helen MacNicoll, dating from the early 20th century.

As a child, Helen suffered from scarlet fever, which led to hearing loss, and was homeschooled. Thanks to her wealthy parents, she traveled extensively, and left Canada to study at the Slade School of Fine Arts. The artist lived most of her life in London, traveling and painting in France and Europe. It was from there that she adopted the impressionist style that made her famous. Despite her critical acclaim during her lifetime, McNicholl has remained relatively unknown, except in Canada, where her work regularly sells for record six-figure sums.

The Canadian philanthropist Pierre Lassonde, a major collector of MacNicoll's work, specially flew to London to see the painting with his own eyes.

"For a painting that was thought to be missing for 110 years, I think it's fantastic... I wouldn't mind adding another copy to my collection," he commented.

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