Masterpiece is found by toilet (From York Press)

Masterpiece is found by toilet

11:03am Thursday 29th November 2007 in

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IT stood for years near the toilets at an Italian restaurant in York, thought by diners to be an old table of little importance.

But now experts have discovered the console is a missing section of a 17th century masterpiece, believed to have been lost for ever.

And after the two pieces were reunited, they are set to fetch up to a million pounds when they go under the hammer at Sotheby's next week.

The table, which stood in the foyer of Ask restaurant, situated in the 18th century Assembly Rooms in Blake Street, is thought to be part of the most important piece of Roman baroque furniture ever to come on the market.

Mario Tavella, head of furniture at Sotheby's, said today the table was identical to two examples preserved in the Royal Danish collections that Pope Clement IX was thought to have commissioned in 1669 as diplomatic gifts.

He revealed how he had been looking for the last 20 years for the carved gilt-wood console, which was the missing stand for a cabinet adorned with intricate miniature depictions of basilicas and monuments of Rome, that Sotheby's had kept in storage on behalf of a client for two decades.

He received a photograph of the console earlier this year, realised it could be the missing stand for the cabinet and then proved the theory when the two pieces were reunited and fitted perfectly together.

The item will go under the hammer during a sale of important Italian and Continental furniture in London on Tuesday.

Ask manager Anshul Narain told The Press that the table had stood in the restaurant's entrance, next to a piano and near toilets, without many people giving it a second thought.

"It was just a piece of furniture to us," he said. "I was very, very surprised when I heard how much it was worth.

"I was about to faint!"

The console is being sold by the York Conservation Trust, which owns the Assembly Rooms, which Ask has rented since 2002. It is understood the trust will share the sale proceeds with a private couple who own the cabinet.

Mr Tavella said the quality of the console's carvings - naked youths linked by garlands and kneeling to support the weight of the cabinet - revealed the hand of a sculptor rather than an artisan.

The console is believed to have become separated from the cabinet soon after the Second World War. "It is arguably the most important piece of Roman baroque furniture that has ever appeared on the market," he said.

A 17th-century document refers to four identical cabinets leaving the workshop of the most famous cabinetmaker in Rome at the time, Giacomo Herman, to be presented to Giacomo Rospigliosi, the nephew of Pope Clement IX.

Two, bought for the Danish Crown in the 1760s, are now in castles at Rosenborg and Fredensborg. A third was donated by Pope Innocent XI to Jan III Sobieski, King of Poland, for the Wilanov Palace, near Warsaw - a present for his victory over the Turks in 1683.

The history of York's Assembly Rooms

1730: Plans drawn up by Lord Burlington to create ornate building to accommodate dancing and other social activities.

1735: Building in Blake Street is completed.

1773: Building hit by fire

1828: new façade designed by J. P. Pritchett is built

1925: Building purchased by York Corporation, which began repairs when it took full control in 1939

1951: Full restoration by corporation

2002: City of York Council decides to sell building to York Conservation Trust. Trust lets it out to Ask Restaurant

2007: Console in foyer is found to be historic treasure and goes under hammer at Sotherby's.