London (dpa) – Once stolen and found years later in a plastic bag, a painting by Titian is said to fetch several million pounds at auction. Christie’s auction house in London estimates the value of “Rest on the Flight into Egypt” at up to 25 million pounds (around 29 million euros). The 16th century image shows Mary with Jesus while Joseph looks on.
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“It was owned by dukes, archdukes and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, plundered by Napoleon and stolen in the late 20th century,” Christie’s said Thursday. The auction is scheduled for July 2nd as part of the “Old Masters Part I” auction.
In 2002, the general manager of the Longleat Estate, Tim Moore, stands next to the painting “Rest on the Flight into Egypt” by the 16th century Venetian painter Titian, which was taken seven years earlier from the house of the Longleat Estate, home of the Thynne family, which has been since In 1789, the title of Marquess of Bath was stolen and found in a plastic carrier bag. The current Marquess of Bath is now having the picture auctioned off. Photo: Sean Dempsey/PA Wire/dpa
The work has an eventful past. After it was owned by several Austrian rulers, including Emperor Joseph II, it came to the Belvedere Museum in Vienna. French troops confiscated the picture there in 1809.
It was later acquired by the British art dealer Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar before being acquired at a Christie’s auction in 1878 by the diplomat John Thynne, the Marquess of Bath. In 1995 it was stolen from the family home of Longleat in western England and found seven years later after a £100,000 reward was offered. The current Marquess of Bath, Ceawlin Thynn, is now putting the picture up for auction.
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“This is the most important work by Titian to come to auction in more than a generation and one of the artist’s few masterpieces still in private hands,” said Christie’s expert Andrew Fletcher, according to the statement. The image is an outstanding example of the artist’s groundbreaking approach to both the use of color and the depiction of the human form in the natural world.
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2024-04-06 07:51:58