Experts examine Van Gogh sketchbook

Athens: A sketchbook believed to have been Vincent van Gogh's containing portraits similar to those in his most famous works has been found in Greece, its owner said on Wednesday.

Taken by a Greek resistance fighter from a Nazi train, the sketchbook was discovered in storage boxes by his daughter, who is seeking to establish its authenticity with the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

One art expert commissioned by Greek writer Doreta Peppa concluded the sketches were by the 19th century Dutch post-Impressionist artist. Foreign experts would soon examine the work to rule on its authenticity, she said.

"Who would not be moved by such a discovery? This is van Gogh's soul," Peppa said. "He intended this sketchbook as a gift and there is no other like it in the world."

The booklet includes sketches of faces and characters, some similar to those incorporated in van Gogh paintings and drawings including The Potato Eaters, Sorrow and Pere Tanguy.

Peppa said she had discovered the small brown sketchbook, with more than 60 pages of sketches and drawings, in boxes left in storage by her late father. If genuine, it could be worth close to 4 million euros (Dh22 million), she said.

A photograph of what Peppa says is the artist himself was also found.

"The notebook ... is a great gift to the whole world of arts," said Greek artist and art expert Athanasio Celia, who was asked by Peppa to examine the sketchbook.

"It is also an exclusive testimony that drawing was, as he believed, the backbone of painting," Celia said in his report, which concludes the sketches are authentic.