It depicts the Virgin and Child seated together on a throne, accompanied by two angels with long feathered wings.

The panel was rediscovered at Benacre Hall near Lowestoft in Suffolk in 2000, after the death of Sir John Gooch, 12th Baronet, as the contents of the house were being prepared for an auction sale.

It may have been acquired in Florence in the early 19th century by his ancestor, Sir Edward Gooch, 6th Baronet, and survived a fire at the house in the 1920s.

The panel was put up for sale and was expected to sell for £10 million, but before it was sold it was accepted in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Gallery.

The heirs were granted a £6.5 million tax exemption, and a donation from Sir John Paul Getty Jr. allowed the gallery to pay a further £700,000.