There are probably more than a few who nurse fond dreams that one day, when that certain great aunt shuffles off this mortal coil to screech in the choir invisible, the post-mortem rummage through her attic will reveal that one of the dusty old canvases propped against a wall will prove to be some long lost masterpiece, a Rembrandt perhaps.

But, alas, for most of us, chances are that all we'll dig out is a painting of a sad puppy, so sickeningly kitsch that the paint is flaking off the cardboard in sheer embarrassment, or, at best, a second rate copy of some masterpiece, just good enough to get our hopes up and laughed at by some smirking art dealer. Well, that is unless your what's-the-world-coming-to great aunt should happen to be the Queen of England and assorted other tracts of land.

In thar case you might come across something like "The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew" by the Baroque bad boy genius Caravaggio.

The painting, which had been in the royal collection through 400 years, and had been believed to be a copy, was found, covered by a thick layer of dust, in storage at Hampton Court Palace, west of London.

But after six years of restoration and study, the scholars on the case feel confident that what they have on their hands is the supposedly long lost original "The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew", one of theof about 50 surviving works by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571 – 1610), according to Desmond Shawe-Taylor, surveyor of the queen's pictures.

It seems the painting was originally bought by King Charles I, who subsequently lost his head, in the 17th century, and is worth north of 50 million pounds (US$96 million; €74 million).

Sadly we will be denied the spectacle of the queen cashing in at Sotheby's and going on the mother of all benders, as she is forbidden from selling items in the Royal Collection, which she holds in trust on behalf of the nation.

The restored painting will feature in an exhibition of Italian Baroque and Renaissance art that opens at Buckingham Palace in March. Before that, it will appear in a Caravaggio exhibition opening in Rome on Nov. 21.