´óÏó´«Ã½

A recovered artwork by "Pitman painter" Norman Cornish has sold at auction.

The painting, entitled Men Drinking in a Pub, was on a bath panel and found during renovation of the artist's previous home in Whitworth Terrace, Spennymoor.

It appears to have another work on the reverse, partly covered by wall paint.

There was no signature, but it was authenticated by the artist's son-in-law, and was sold to an anonymous bidder for £2,000.

John Anderson, of auctioneers Anderson and Garland, described it as a "a piece of salvage that may yield a masterpiece".

Norman Cornish, who died last year, started working in the mines when he was 14 and became famous for his paintings of everyday life in the industrial North East after attending the Pitman's Academy.

In January, an early self-portrait with a hidden portrait of his wife on the other side was sold for £13,500.