And run away it did, with bidding soaring and the hammer finally coming down at $40,000 – or $47,200 including premium. The buyer was a German bidding on the phone against a number of internet buyers.

Amazingly, the picture had not been unearthed in a dusty loft but at Savill Galleries in Paddington.

Savill, who has the prices of thousands of works by Australian artists at his fingertips, says he had owned the Cranach for 25 years, always believing it was not an original by the noted German Renaissance artist and engraver of the 1500s.

In a classic example of the auction house "sleeper", an Old Master surfaced amid a host of modestly priced art at a Sydney action house recently, attracting bidding from as far away as Europe, courtesy of the internet.

The picture, an oil on panel unpromisingly titled Infatuated Old Woman, was a study of two ladies holding a bag of money, and it surfaced at Davidson Auctions in Sydney's Annandale a few weeks ago, at the tail end of a 347 lot offering of Australian and European art.

With a pre-sale estimate of $300 to $500, it was described in the catalogue as "After Lucas Cranach" – the "after" suggesting it is by an understudy or copyist.

Auctioneer Robert Davidson says he had a fair idea the work could be worth far more when requests for condition reports and detailed photographs flowed in from Europe.

He says the firm handles a lot of pictures from $500 to $5000, sometimes even up to $20,000.


But he could see the growing interest with bids lodged prior to the sale. "It [the estimate] makes you look a bit silly", he admits.

"I think I started at about $6000 – it was clear it would run away."

And run away it did, with bidding soaring and the hammer finally coming down at $40,000 – or $47,200 including premium. The buyer was a German bidding on the phone against a number of internet buyers.

Amazingly, the picture had not been unearthed in a dusty loft but at Savill Galleries in Paddington, where proprietor Denis Savill earlier this year announced his intention to quit the business - as confirmed by recent sales of his stock at Sotheby's Australia, and later this month at Menzies.

Savill, who has the prices of thousands of works by Australian artists at his fingertips, says he had owned the Cranach, if such it is, for 25 years, always believing it was not an original by the noted German Renaissance artist and engraver of the 1500s.

Meanwhile, the ebullient gallerist is muddying the waters over his proposed "retirement", unveiling himself as the purchaser of one of the pricier lots at Shapiro in Woollahra on August 23. It seems he paid $54,000 for Herbert Gallop's The Bridge Under Construction - Milsons Point, from 1927. But he says it's not for the gallery but for his private collection.