‘Incredibly rare’ Italian sculpture found at salvage yard after mystery disappearance

He said the reclamation yard had acquired the statue from a manor house in Andover, where it had been in the garden for “quite a long time, potentially decades”.

“It should be a lovely white marble, but it looks like concrete,” he said.

“I don’t think whoever owned it had rated it as a lost masterpiece.”

Despite its “weathered” appearance, an “eagle-eyed” collector spotted it and it is now going under the hammer at the Salisbury-based auctioneers.

“[The seller] wants to remain anonymous but it was a great find by him,” said Yuan-Richards.

“But how it ended up in England – if only these things could tell us their stories.”

The lot is estimated to fetch between £5,000 and £10,000 when it comes up for auction on the 8 October.