On Tuesday, Christie’s London Classics Week evening sales – the Old Masters Part I and the Masters sale – brought in a combined total of nearly $65 million. The former was headlined by Titian’s Rest during the Flight to Egypt (c. 1510), sold for $22,178,280, setting a new auction record for the artist.
The wood panel, measuring 46 x 62.9 cm, depicts Mary holding Jesus as Joseph looks on and is estimated at $20-30 million. It last sold at Christie’s in 1878 when it was bought by the 4th Marquess of Bath. Christie’s said before the sale: “This is one of the last of the artist’s famous early religious works to remain in private hands and the painting has been in the possession of some of Europe’s greatest collectors.”
Eventually, the painting passed to Severin Sinn, 8th Marquess of Bath, who now lives at Longleat House in Wiltshire, England, and who, together with the trustees of Longleat House, donated it to Christie’s as part of “their long-term investment strategy”.
“This early masterpiece by Titian is one of the most poetic works of his youth,” said Orlando Locke, chairman of Christie’s UK. “This marvelous religious painting has impeccable provenance, having passed through the hands of dukes, archdukes and Holy Roman emperors, but became infamous for being stolen twice – first by Napoleon and again in the mid- to late 1990s.”
The painting was stolen from Longleat House in 1995 and was found seven years later in a plastic bag in London without its frame.
The previous auction record for a Titian was $16.9 million Sacred Conversation (c. 1560), sold by Sotheby’s New York in 2011.
