The painting in question. (Courtesy Daily Mail)

A painting stored carelessly for years in a Scottish farmhouse is now believed by some scholars to be a lost work by Leonardo da Vinci worth over £100 million (about $156 million).

Facing financial difficulties, the painting's owner, Fiona McLaren, took the work to Sotheby's in Scotland. Auctioneer Harry Robertson "gasped" when he saw it. Ms. McLaren received the work as a 40th birthday present from her late father--a doctor who was given the painting by a patient. It will travel to London where it will be further inspected, and then to the Hamilton Kerr Institute at the University of Cambridge where it is expected to be dated conclusively.

[via the Daily Mail]