Works by famed artists discovered

Paintings by two famed artists were reported discovered Friday in different European cities.

In Germany, an unknown work by Edvard Munch was found after restorers discovered it behind another canvas at the Kunsthalle, the main art museum in Bremen. It shows three mask-like faces looking down toward a naked, seated girl.

Restorers discovered it hidden on a second canvas behind the museum’s only Munch work, “The Dead Mother,” director Wulf Herzogenrath said. The museum has christened the find “Girl and Three Men’s Heads” and dated it 1898.

Meanwhile, an unsigned painting by 17th century French master Georges de La Tour has been discovered in a Madrid mansion after hanging in offices unnoticed for decades. The painting, “St. Jerome Reading a Letter,” is only the second work by La Tour known to exist in Spain and only one of about a dozen of his paintings to have been identified throughout the world.

It was taken to the Prado in Madrid in March and studied by experts. The museum also consulted former Louvre director and La Tour expert Pierre Rosenberg, who confirmed the find.