A COUPLE were left struggling to pay their bills until they discovered a painting worth around £2million in their home.
Aristocrat Simon Houison Craufurd, 51, and his wife Adity live in a Scottish castle that has been owned by his family for 800 years.
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The couple run Craufurdland Castle, near Kilmarnock, in Ayrshire, and its 600-acre estate and hoped to pass it down to their two kids.
Then financial struggles and £100,000 maintenance costs left Simon fearful that they would be forced to sell their family home.
But Simon and Adity may have been handed a lifeline after discovering a painting in the guest wing of their castle could be worth millions.
According to the Daily Mail, an unknown work by world-famous landscape artist John Constable dating back to the 1820s could help solve all their money problems.
The painting shows a body of water under a bridge and has been on the wall in the guest wing area of Craufurdland Castle for years.
It was initially written off as being a fake Constable painting – but now antique experts think it could be worth anywhere between £1million and £2million.
Simon and Adity have taken part in a new Channel 4 show called Millionaire Hoarders where specialists help them discover incredible items in their homes that could sell to get some cash.
And expert Ronnie Archer-Morgan noticed that the painting could be genuine – despite an auction house claiming it to be fake ten years ago.
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Speaking on the show, Simon said: “It’s funny because it’s a painting that I have seen I don’t know how many times and I have never actually paid any attention to it.
“‘The potential that the painting could bring to what we want to with the estate going forward is not just life-changing just for us – it’s a legacy that will, I would hope, go on for generations and generations.”
Adity added: “It would be life-changing for the business, for the house, for everything.”
Ronnie has spent the last six months looking into the painting for the show and claimed that the couple has “gold” in their hands.
A Constable expert has now taken the painting for forensic analysis before it is set to go on sale at an auction.
The painting has Constable’s name signed on it with research finding that the bridge is over the River Thames.
And Constable’s sketchbooks have shown that he was in the area at the time when it was painted.
Constable passed away aged 60 in April 1837.
His painting called The Lock was sold at £22.4 million at auction back in July 2012 and became one of the most expensive British paintings ever sold.
Fans can watch Millionaire Hoarders tonight at 8pm on Channel 4.
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