Artwork that hung for centuries at St John’s Almshouse in Sherborne will be sold to raise funds for social housing
“The blessing of the Lord brings wealth, and He adds no sorrow with it,” so says the Bible, Proverbs 10:22.
On Friday, a church almshouse was counting its blessings after discovering that a triptych painting that has hung in the chapel for centuries is a 15th-century Flemish masterpiece worth £3.5m.
The panelled artwork, displaying the five miracles of Christ, has been housed at the Almshouse of Saint John the Evangelist and John the Baptist, in Sherborne, Dorset, since before the Reformation.
The trustees asked an auction house to safeguard the altarpiece for security reasons while the almshouse underwent renovations.
