Garden sculpture turns out to be lost masterpiece worth millions

• Video report by ITV News Presenter Lucrezia Millarini

A sculpture that a couple kept in their garden has turned out to be a missing masterpiece valued at £8 million by auction house Christie’s.

'Recumbent Magdalene' was one of the last pieces Italian sculptor Antonio Canova created before his death in 1822.

The unnamed couple bought the six-foot long marble work sculpture for just over £5,000 in 2002 and kept it outside until they became suspicious of its origins.

Depicting Mary Magdalene in a state of grief, the work was commissioned in 1819 by then prime minister Lord Liverpool.

“It is a miracle that Antonio Canova’s exceptional, long-lost masterpiece has been found, 200 years after its completion,” said Dr Mario Guderzo, a leading Canova scholar and former director of the Museo Gypsotheca Antonio Canova.

“This work has been searched for by scholars for decades, so the discovery is of fundamental importance for the history of collecting and the history of art.”

Donald Johnston, Christie’s International Head of Sculpture said: “The rediscovery of Canova’s lost masterpiece – the Recumbent Magdalene – is immensely exciting and is a highlight within my 30 plus year career in the field."

It is on show at Christie's in central London, before it goes on sale in July.