A long-hidden painting of the crucified Christ by Flemish Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens sold Sunday for $2.7 million, with fees pushing the final price to $3.41 million.
The 1613 canvas, measuring 105.5 by 72.5 centimeters (42 by 29 inches), was discovered last year by auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat while clearing a private Paris mansion for sale. Hidden from public view for more than four centuries, the work was known only through a 17th-century engraving and later catalog descriptions.
Osenat, whose auction house in Versailles handled the sale, called it “a masterpiece” painted when Rubens was “at the height of his talent,” per The Guardian. He said he immediately suspected its importance despite its modest earlier valuations.
German art historian Nils Büttner, a leading Rubens scholar, authenticated the painting after scientific analysis, including X-ray imaging and pigment study that revealed the artist’s signature use of blue and green in flesh tones.
Büttner noted that while Rubens painted many crucifixions, “this is the one and only painting showing blood and water coming out of the side wound of Christ, and this is something that Rubens only painted once,” the Associated Press reported.
“It’s the very beginning of baroque painting, depicting a crucified Christ, isolated, luminous and standing out vividly against a dark and threatening sky,” Osenat said, according to The Guardian.
The work once belonged to 19th-century French academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau and remained in his family until the recent rediscovery. Likely created for a private collector, the painting vanished from records shortly after completion.
The successful bidder was not identified.