Three previously unknown oil paintings attributed to avant-garde artist Kazimir Malevich are on show at a public museum in Bucharest. If proven authentic, they could be worth over £100 million, but a top scholar says the story behind their origin is problematic.
Now the museum exhibiting them is refusing to say whether the works are genuine.
Ukraine-born Kazimir Malevich is considered one of the most influential 20th-Century artists. On the art market, his paintings are worth more than any other Ukrainian or Russian artist, with one work selling for a record $85m (£63m) in 2018.
But during a house move in 2023, three unknown Malevich paintings were discovered under the mattress of Israeli pensioner Eva Levando, according to Yaniv Cohen, a Bucharest-based Israeli businessman and owner of the works.
The pensioner is the grandmother of Mr Cohen's wife, and she had given him the works.
