Student finds Italian treasure in old sofa

0 Comments | AFP, October, 2007

BERLIN (AFP) — A German student who bought a battered fold-up sofa at a flea market has sold a 17th century Italian painting she discovered tucked inside it for 19,600 euros (28,200 dollars).

"I opened the sofa and there was a painting. I immediately knew it was valuable but I had no idea that I would get that much for it," Ulrike Eisenhardt, 22, who is studying economics in Berlin, told on AFP on Tuesday.

The canvas, which was wrapped up in old rags, is titled "Preparing the Flight to Egypt" and believed to be the work of pupils of Venetian early-Baroque master Carlo Saraceni.

Eisenhardt said art experts approached by her grandfather had estimated its value at around 6,000 euros before it was sold by the art auction house Ketterer Kunst in Hamburg at the...