Antiques expert stunned as £40 painting turns out to be £12m Van Gogh masterpiece

The painting was bought for around £40 but is believed to be worth millions (Image: LMI Group International)

Antiques experts believe they have verified a long-lost Vincent Van Gogh masterpiece which was originally purchased for around £40 at a garage sale in Minnesota, US.

The painting features a fisherman smoking his pipe and is believed to be worth an estimated £12m.

It was purchased by an antiques dealer who spotted it in a bin filled with paintings in 2016, before selling it to data science art research firm LMI Group International.

The group has spent tens of thousands and four years proving the authenticity of the painting which is called ‘Elimar’ after what is written in the bottom-right corner.

LMI Group International said the name appears in a romance novel by an author that Van Gogh was a fan of, suggesting he used the name in “what is effectively a fictive self portrait” to the man he wanted to be.

It is believed the iconic Dutch artist painted the artwork while he was in a psychiatric asylum in the south of France in 1889 - the same place where he painted The Starry Night, one of his most famous pieces.

“One of the reasons he made this remarkable work may have been to prove to himself that he was recovering from the psychotic breaks of the past,” the LMI Group International said in its report.

“He was intent on overcoming an addiction to alcohol and the relentless need to drive himself to the point of collapse.”

The piece has not been authenticated by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, reports say.

Self-Portrait by Vincent van Gogh. (Image: Getty)

It is well-known that Van Gogh lost many works and it’s believed during his time at the psychiatric facility in Saint-Remy, nearly two dozen paintings may have been lost.

He was born in Zundert, the Netherlands, in 1853 and some of his most famous paintings include Irises, Cafe Terrace at Night and Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers.

He famously cut off his left ear after tempers flared with an artist in Arles, France. 

Van Gogh suffered with mental illness for much of his life and in July 1890 - a year after he is believed to have painted Elimar - shot himself in the chest with a revolver. He died two days later.