An 18th century masterpiece appears to be hiding in L.A.

A missing masterpiece of 18th century painting, lost for more than 100 years, has apparently been hanging in a Los Angeles home since the mid-1950s.

Nicknamed "Espanola" - Spanish girl - after the primped and powdered child who is the painting's focus, the lost work is from a brilliant set of 16 paintings by Miguel Cabrera (circa 1715-1768), the greatest painter of his age in Mexico. The paintings are believed to have left the country two years before the artist's death, but the whereabouts of Espanola has long been unknown.

Now it seems the singular gem has been hiding in plain sight - although the exact location of the domestic hideaway remains a nagging mystery.

Ilona Katzew, curator of Latin American art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, has puzzled over the bedeviling question for the last two years after receiving an enticing - and eccentric - letter. It was written in the voice of Espanola, then signed as if by the little girl, who in the elegant painting is