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Vienna (dpa) - Four early works by Austrian painter Gustav Klimt have been rediscovered in a Vienna palace, Austrian television reported Friday.
Art historian Alfred Weidinger said the canvas paintings, mounted on the ceiling in one of the palace's rooms are most likely Klimt's first commissioned works.
The palace, situated on Vienna's Ringstrasse boulevard, is owned by the Austrian state, and until recently housed part of Vienna University's Faculty of Catholic Theology.
The unsigned paintings, which Klimt completed together with his brother Ernst and fellow painter Franz Matsch, were mentioned in a 1957 catalogue but since then forgotten, a spokesman of the federal property administration office said.
Now the paintings, badly affected by dust and grime, are to be removed and restored.
With a current value estimated at around 100,000 euros (128,000 dollars) each these early works cannot match the prices of Klimt's later works. In recent auctions two portraits by Klimt fetched 135 and 87.9 million dollars respectively.
Copyright 2006 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH
