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Art collector says he found head from Courbet's explicit nude

By Marine Pennetier PARIS, Feb 7 (Reuters) - A French art collector claims to have found the head from the nude body that appears in a famously explicit 19th Century oil painting of a woman's genitalia. Art expert Jean-Jacques Fernier, who has studied the works of Gustave Courbet for years, told Reuters he believed an unsigned painting of a woman's head, featured in this week's Paris Match magazine, had been cut off his masterpiece "The Origin of the World".

Antique shop painting could be worth $53 million

A French art expert believes he has solved the mystery of the model in a celebrated 19th century painting as a result of an art lover's 1,400 euro antique shop purchase that could turn out to be worth 40 million euros ($53.6 million), weekly Paris Match reported on Thursday. "The Origin of the World" (1866) by French painter Gustave Courbet depicts female genitalia but does not show the woman's face.
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