A painting discovered in a rubbish bin in Switzerland has sold at an auction in Zurich for over 67.000 francs. After being fully restored, experts discovered that this gem of the rubbish heap was painted by a famous Dutch artist.

Painting recovered from a skip bound for a Swiss incineration plant

Our story starts when an anonymous seller handed Isabelle Koller, from auction house Koller in Zurich, a broken piece of supposedly unremarkable art. According to 20 Minuten, the painting is said to have been found in a rubbish bin that was set to head to a local incineration plant. The painting was in a rough way too, having been scratched and broken into three pieces.

Despite the unlikely provenance, Koller suspected that the painting could be a hidden masterpiece. The work was then renovated by the head of old master paintings Karoline Weser. It was during the painstaking repairs that she found that the work was not just any print thrown in the bin never to be seen again.

Garbage heap painting from Dutch master David Vinckboons

Weser identified the painting as a work by David Vinckboons, a painter who lived during the Dutch Golden Age from 1576 to 1632. At the time, the Melchelen-born artist was arguably the most popular painter in the Netherlands, having pioneered the concept of genre painting - works depicting scenes, events and everyday occurrences.

On September 20, the newly restored art, now titled "Wide mountain landscape with farmers returning from the fair", went up for auction in Zurich with an estimate of 10.000 to 15.000 francs. Amazingly, what started out at the bottom of a bin turned into quite the windfall for the seller, with the work fetching 67.500 francs.

Thumb image credit: Luciavonu / Shutterstock.com