As my friend put it when he emailed me this article, this seems right up your alley. Dead on.

An apartment kept although never visited. An exquisite Boldini portrait and old Mickey Mouse toys found. All discovered after the owner’s death under a thick layer of dust. More from the Telegraph here.

The portrait discovered there has since been attributed to Giovanni Boldini and went for a nice 2.1M Euro at auction, spurred on by the discovery that the never-before seen piece had been painted of the artist’s muse, actress Marthe de Florian.  Boldoni (1842–931) was an Italian genre and portrait painter who was known as the “Master of Swish,” because of his flowing style of painting. He painted many high society people.

Portrait of the dandy Robert de Montesquiou

Traces of glamor come through even under dust an inch thick.

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