£200 paintings worth a million

Two small paintings hanging in the spare room of a pensioner's Oxford home have been identified as the missing pieces from a masterpiece of medieval art worth more than £1 million .

The altarpiece of the church and convent of St Marco in Florence, painted in 1439 by the monk known as Fra Angelico, was one of the glories of the Italian Renaissance.

It was broken up during the Napoleonic wars. Six of the eight small paintings that surrounded the main panel had been found and the location of the last two was described as one of art's greatest mysteries.

The mystery has been solved at the home of Jean Preston, 77, a retired academic who died this year. An expert on medieval handwriting, she lived modestly.

She bought the paintings as a present for her father in the early 1960s while she was working in the US and is believed to have paid no more than £200 for the pair.

Preston inherited them after his death in 1974 but it was not until shortly before her own death that she discovered the secret of the modest portraits.

They were identified by Michael Liversidge, a family friend and art academic. "She was pleased her 'eye' had been correct," he said.

The paintings will be sold at auction in March.