SIEDLCE, POLAND.- A small church museum has just opened an exhibition of a painting by El Greco discovered in Poland around 40 years ago. The work is titled Ecstasy of St Francis. Church authorities could not afford to exhibit it and also wanted to hide it from communist authorities. It took ten years for experts to confirm was an authentic El Greco.

Isabella Galicka and Hanna Sygietynska stated, "All the time we believed that the great moment would come. All the time we believed that the great moment would come, we even had a photo of the painting stuck to our wardrobe in the Institute - we kissed it, saying prove you are the original "

Isabella Galicka and Hanna Sygietynska discovered the painting while working at the Polish Institute of Art. The painting portrays St Francis of Assisi, dressed in a brown robe, stretching out his palms bearing the stigmata.