Cimabue's Christ Mocked: Painting kept above elderly woman's kitchen stove found to be £5m masterpiece

A painting hanging above an elderly woman’s kitchen stove has been revealed to be an early Renaissance masterpiece worth around £5 million.

The painting, Christ Mocked, by the Florentine master Cimabue, is thought to be part of a series of religious scenes by the teacher of Giotto dating back to 1280.

Its owner thought it was an anonymous religious icon before she had it valued and its identity was revealed. Two other scenes from the set already hang in the National Gallery in London and the Frick Collection in New York, respectively.

The painting will go up for auction on October 27 when it is estimated to fetch around €6 million (£5.3 million).

The work, found in the northern French town of Compiegne, had been hanging directly above a hot plate used to prepare food. Experts used infrared light to confirm it was by the famous painter.

The discovery comes almost 20 years after a similar find in a Suffolk stately home when another of Cimabue’s panels was identified by auctioneers going through the estate of a local aristocrat.

That painting, which is now on show at the National Gallery, was saved for the nation and became the first work by the artist to enter any museum in England. The latest discovered work will go under the hammer at the Acteon auction house in Senlis, north of Paris, at the end of October.

The work, on a background of gold paint typical of the early Renaissance, was identified by experts from art firm Eric Turquin Expertise.

Mr Turquin said there was “no disputing that the painting was done by the same hand” as other works already identified as being by Cimabue. The artist is believed to have died in Pisa in 1302.