A rare painting by avant-garde Australian artist and University of Sydney philanthropist John Wardell Power is expected to break auction records next week after being unearthed in Europe after 70 years. Basket of Fruit, c.1936, which was last exhibited in Paris in 1945, was discovered this year at a flea market in The Netherlands and will be auctioned as part of Bonhams’ Important Australian & International Art sale in Sydney on June 16. Bonhams’ Australian art specialist Merryn Schriever said only nine Power paintings had been offered at auction in the past 20 years and Basket of Fruit was the best of them. “The majority of Power’s works are now held by the University of Sydney, so to have a painting of this quality appear on the secondary market is very exciting,” Ms Schriever said. The current auction record for a work by Power was set by Bonhams in 2013 for Abstract Figure, which sold to the National Gal

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