The painting went to Eric Turquin, an expert in old paintings based in Paris.
His team examined it under infrared light, which can reveal what lies beneath the paint. What they found looked like the work of one artist in particular.
Their answer: Cimabue.
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Cimabue was a Florentine painter of the 13th century. He is known as the teacher of Giotto, and as one of the first painters to break with medieval and Byzantine traditions and paint in a more natural style.
Only about ten of his works are known, all unsigned and all in museums and public collections.
This one, a scene called Christ Mocked, was painted around 1280. That made it more than 700 years old.