AMSTERDAM.- The Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands’ national museum, discovered a previously unknown masterpiece at the auction Property from the estate of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands at Sotheby’s in Amsterdam. Upon closer study, the terracotta sculpture of two women, still credited to ‘Louis Royer’s circle’ in the auction catalogue, has been attributed to court sculptor Jean-Louis van Geel, one of the Netherlands’ foremost neoclassical sculptors. It is the only example of the artist’s work held by a Dutch museum. At 48 cm and signed ‘L. van…1816’, the sculpture depicts the political unification of the Netherlands and Belgium between 1815 and 1830, with two women in classical dress holding hands and the lion of the Netherlands between them symbolising alliance. The figure on the right holding the caduceus, symbolising trade, and a plough, denoting agriculture, represents the Dutch Republic, while the lef