AN Ipswich art treasure owned by murdered fashion designer Gianna Versace - originally thought to have been sold for just �1 - is expected to fetch �10,000 at auction.

AN Ipswich art treasure owned by murdered fashion designer Gianna Versace - originally thought to have been sold for just �1 - is expected to fetch �10,000 at auction.

The painting - titled The Death of Eucles - was created by local artist Frederick George Cotman and used to hang in the town hall.

But in 1956 it was sold by the Ipswich Corporation Museum Committee - possibly for as little as �1.

It is now expected to fetch up to �10,000 when it is auctioned at Sotheby's' in London on Wednesday, March 18 - along with 550 other possessions previously belonging to the dead Italian fashion designer.

Frederick George Cotman lived in London Road, Ipswich and later moved to Whitegates, Felixstowe.

The painting was exhibited at the prestigious Royal Academy in London in 1874 and shows the death of Eucles - a brave Athenian general who was brutally murdered in 422 BC.

Emma Roodhouse, art curator at the Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service, said: “The painting was sold in 1956. There was quite a large sale of works in the collection to raise money for the running of the museum.

“The Cotman picture is one of four listed by the artist that they sold. Unfortunately they probably sold it for all of a �1.”

The painting was much admired by Gianni Versace and in recent years languished at his luxury mansion, Villa Fontanelle, on the shores of Lake Como, Italy.

The fashion designer - whose possessions are expected to fetch up to �2m when they are auctioned - was murdered outside his Miami home at the age of 50 on July 15, 1997.