Christ Mocked, by the 13th-century artist who taught Giotto, is estimated to be worth between €4 million and €6 million, according to the Old Masters specialists Turquin.
They said the work was owned by an old lady in the northern French town of Compiegne, who hung it between her kitchen and her sitting room.
It sat directly above a hotplate for years.
The painting is believed to be part of a large diptych dating from 1280, when Cimabue painted eight scenes portraying Christ’s passion and crucifixion.
Two other scenes from the work are housed in the National Gallery in London and the Frick Collection in New York.
The work in the National Gallery was also lost for centuries, and only found when a British aristocrat was clearing his ancestral seat in Suffolk.
The elderly owner of the latest discovery thought it was just an old religious icon when she took it to her local auctioneers to be valued.
It will now go under the hammer at the Acteon auction house in Senlis, north of Paris, on October 27.
