While Sotheby's in London tried to clarify the accusation of auctioning a stolen artwork, owner of a Dutch art gallery said on Thursday it was still "clumsy of Sotheby's to let this happen."

The work, a papier-mache relief, was one of several art pieces stolen from the Bommel van Dam museum in Venlo in March 2013. Together they had a value of over 1 million euros (1.3 million U.S. dollars).

According to an earlier report of the Dutch Newspaper NRC, Sotheby's ignored a warning from the Art Loss Register (ALR), a database of stolen artworks, before the work -- dating back to 1969 -- was sold under a different name and had been turned 90 degrees in the sales catalogue.

"Sotheby's was phoned by the Art Loss Register prior to the sale of this lot regarding a potential match with a stolen work on the ALR database," the company said in a statement sent to Xinhua Wednesday.

"We confirmed to the Art Loss Register that the title on the back of our work did not match the title in their records, and the ALR did not follow up to notify us that they nevertheless believed the work was indeed a stolen work," it said.

However, Paul van Rosmalen, owner of a Dutch art gallery in Amsterdam, did not agree with Sotheby's. Van Rosmalen, together with an art gallery in London, had bought the artwork and claimed he discovered only a few days after the auction that the work might have been stolen.

"Even if it turns out Sotheby's has not ignored a warning, it was still incredibly clumsy of Sotheby's to let this happen, to say the least," he told Xinhua.

Van Rosmalen discovered the work was stolen when he looked closer at the serial number written on the back of the painting.

"I suddenly remembered that 10 years ago I had already bought a painting with the same number," Van Rosmalen said.

But according to Sotheby's in London, the painting was never sold. "The sale has not been completed and Sotheby's is assisting the authorities with the ongoing investigation."

"Maybe legally you could say that is was indeed not sold, because the painting had to be paid still, but it was certainly auctioned," Van Rosmalen explained.

Sotheby's had also been to the police after van Rosmalen became suspicious about the provenance of the new purchase. Endi

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