A Renaissance painting that was found in a garage has sold for more than half a million pounds.

The work, which depicts the Madonna and Child, is believed to be by 15th century painter Pietro Vannucci.

It sold to a private buyer for £685,000 after a 15-minute online bidding war via auction house JS Fine Arts in Banbury, Oxfordshire.

The sale generated a huge flurry of interest from across the world, to the extent that the auction house’s phones were constantly ringing.  

Joe Smith, principal auctioneer, said: ‘It was one of those moments every auctioneer dreams of. 

The work, which depicts the Madonna and Child, is believed to be by 15th century painter Pietro Vannucci

‘We knew it was special, but the response was beyond anything we expected.’ 

The sale fee smashes the auction house’s previous sale record of £285,000. 

The seller, an Oxfordshire local, bought the painting years earlier without any knowledge of its origins or potential value. 

Vannucci, who was known as ‘Il Perugino’, was among the most celebrated painters of the Italian Renaissance.

The artist was even considered an equal of Leonardo da Vinci. 

He was commissioned to paint the walls of the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, decades before Michelangelo’s stunning ceiling fresco in the church.

Vannucci, who died in 1523, went on to be eclipsed by his student Raphael.