A PAINTING owned by Southampton City Council could provide the key to an art mystery.

It is thought a painting owned by a private collector could have been a work by 19th century artist and teacher of Monet, Eugene Boudin.

Now researchers from London’s Courtauld Institute of Art have visited Southampton to take microscopic samples from Boudin’s ‘Marine Effect of the Moon’, which is owned by the city council.

By analysing the tiny samples Ginny Nouwen and Kate Walter will work out what materials the paint is made of and see if they match the palette in the mystery painting.

Ginny said: “The technical research will inform us what materials Boudin was using at various points in his career, illustrate the evolution of his style and technique, and how the paintings may have changed with age.

“The ultimate aim of this project is to shed some more light on a relatively under-studied artist who nevertheless played quite an important role in the formation of the Impressionist movement - he was Monet’s teacher.”

While x-raying the painting, conservator Rebecca Moisan - who has worked at Southampton City Art Gallery for 22 years - also found the position of the moon in the painting had been moved.

The painting is one of the first acquired for Southampton’s collection through the Chipperfield Bequest Fund in the 1930’s.

Conservators at Southampton City Art Gallery have won a £32,000 grant restore 14 sculptures currently locked away in the gallery's vaults.

The cash will allow a council team to painstakingly repair the pieces by artists such as Tony Cragg, Richard Deacon, Shirazeh Houshiary and Cornelia Parker. Included in the selection of 14 due to be restored are three pieces by Nick Monro.

The life-size sculptures are of Max Wall, a music hall, stage and comedy performer who lived through two world wars and starred as one of the inventors in much-loved children’s film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.