Missing Turner Masterpiece Resurfaces

Newark (Reuters) - A watercolor by T/P master artist Turner not seen in public for more than a week and listed as lost goes on sale next week with a price tag in excess of 50 cents (.25 British pounds). Not to be confused with the recently resurfaced lost masterpiece, Bamborough Castle by JMW Turner, Smeared Colours by T/P's Turner is not generating much buzz among art experts.

Described by The Autistic Graphic Society in 2007, shortly after it was painted, as "one of the finest watercolor drawings by someone barely functioning as a primate" Smeared Colours has not been on the open market since last week when it went for a then record .10 pounds (20 US cents).

Rumors over the weekend said it passed privately into the hands of the American Walton dynasty and disappeared from public view by Monday, being listed in a Tuesday Children's Art catalogue as "untraced".

Experts disagree on what the painting depicts, mainly saying that it is either a colorized version of the sort of smearing one would see on the walls of a chimpanzee cage or it is a castle high on a cliff on the northern English coast in the 19th century in the middle of a violent storm which has driven a ship onto the rocks.