Missing works of art can sometimes show up in the strangest places. At the dump, behind walls, in closets, at flea markets: one never knows where great art might be hiding.

One rediscovery is particularly amazing, however: a missing work of avant-garde art was spotted being used as a prop in Hollywood family film Stuart Little. Yes, the one about the CGI mouse. The painting in question has now fetched a tidy sum at auction in Budapest.

Sleeping Lady with Black Vase by Hungarian artist Robert Bereny had disappeared some time in the 1920s. Where it went after that is unknown, until it turned up in the most unlikely of places .

In 2009, art historian Gergely Barki spotted it by chance while watching Stuart Little with his daughter. The painting was being used as a background prop in the film. All Barki had seen of the painting was a black-and-white photograph from a 1928 exhibition, but recognised it as the missing work.

Barki contacted Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures about the painting. An email from a set designer two years later eventually revealed that it was indeed Sleeping Lady, with the designer having purchased it in a California antiques shop.

AFP reports that the painting has fetched €229,500 at auction at the Budapest Congress Centre - a price that is said to have 'exceeded expectations'.