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A controversial picture of a young girl which many believe to be the only known painting of English author Jane Austen goes on sale in New York today and is expected to fetch up to US$800,000 ($1.1 million).
Henry Rice, a distant relative of the writer of classics such as Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, has admitted that the sale of a picture that has long divided experts will not be without its detractors.
In 1948, a leading Austen scholar dismissed the authenticity of the portraitsaying the style of costume the subject wears does not match the date.
Rice and his family never doubted the girl in the picture was their ancestor. The painting is thought to date from 1788 or 1789 when Austen would have been about 14.
- REUTERS
