Missing Ricci painting turns up

A painting by Italian master Sebastiano Ricci, long presumed to be lost, has turned up in Texas after a 300-year journey from the hands of a European nobleman playboy to a fur trader and finally through generations of one family.

Ricci’s “The Vision of St. Bruno” will be offered by Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries on Nov. 20. Heritage officials say the painting has been estimated to fetch at least $600,000.

A year ago, the family that owns the work asked Heritage chairman of fine arts Edmund Pillsbury to take a look at a painting stored in a warehouse. The family thought it could be a Ricci, but Pillsbury was skeptical. He was floored when he realized that the painting -- of a robed St. Bruno looking up at angels -- appeared to be the long-unseen work of the Venetian painter.