London ( CNN ) -- A painting dismissed for years as the work of an unknown artist has been identified as a piece by Vincent Van Gogh , after x-rays revealed an image of two wrestlers fighting underneath the floral still life . `` Still Life with Meadow Flowers and Roses '' has hung in the Kroeller-Mueller Museum in the town of Otterlo , in the eastern Netherlands , since 1974 , but doubts over its authorship have dogged the painting for decades . Experts argued that the large format , the location of the signature , and the huge number of flowers in the composition all suggested the painting was the creation of an unidentified artist , rather than the famed Dutch painter , and the work was officially `` dismissed '' from his catalogue in 2003 . `` There were so many questions around this painting , '' explained Teio Meedendorp , researcher at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam . `` There were a lot of things about it that were strange -- it could n't quite be trusted [ as a piece by Van Gogh ] . '' But the latest high-tech x-ray imaging has allowed scholars to re-examine an underpainting , featuring two wrestlers fighting , first glimpsed in the 1990s , and confirm that the picture is indeed by Van Gogh . Saving Van Gogh 's home from dereliction . Van Gogh ( 1853-1890 ) created some of the world 's best known and most loved paintings , including `` Sunflowers , '' `` Irises '' and `` The Starrry Night , '' and a number of self-portraits . He was virtually unknown as an artist during his lifetime , but his reputation soared in the years after his suicide at the age of 37 following years of mental illness , and his works now hang in major museums and galleries around the globe . During the art market boom of the late 1980s and early 1990s , three of Van Gogh 's works succeeded each other as the most expensive paintings ever sold : `` Sunflowers '' for $ 39.9 million , `` Irises '' for $ 53.9 million , and `` Portrait of Dr. Gachet '' for $ 82.5 million . `` The painting was x-rayed before , so we knew there was something underneath , but the image was not very clear , '' he told CNN . `` This new technique gave us a much clearer image , and lots of details about the pigments and the paint layers . `` We know Vincent painted wrestlers , we know much more than we did 10 years ago about the pigments he used , and we know that at the time , when re-using a canvas , he simply painted over the top of the previous image , without an intermediate layer . `` This painting was a complete match with all the research that has been done over the past 10 years . '' Van Gogh , Kahlo speak from beyond grave . Van Gogh wrote about the wrestlers picture -- which he painted as an assignment during his studies at the art academy in Antwerp -- in a letter in January 1886 : `` This week I painted a large thing with two nude torsos -- two wrestlers , '' adding that he was delighted with the result . Research suggests that the still life was painted on the same canvas fewer than six months later , while in Paris . `` The top layer was applied not long afterwards , '' said Meedendorp . `` We can tell this because he used a lot of zinc white in the wrestlers picture , and it dries very , very slowly . `` The x-rays show that it had not hardened completely when the still life was added , causing some cracks in the paint of the flower picture , which suggests it was painted less than half a year later . '' Meedendorp said there was always the possibility of discovering other `` unknown '' Van Gogh works in future . `` There are other paintings that have n't been x-rayed , '' he told CNN . `` There are always other opportunities . ''
`` Still life with meadow flowers and roses '' dismissed as work of unknown artist . Large format , subject , and signature all pointed to painting being by someone other than Van Gogh . New high-tech x-ray imaging revealed underpainting of wrestlers , details of pigments used . Experts say they are now confident that the piece is definitely by `` Sunflowers '' artist Van Gogh .