A historic painting made over five centuries ago by famed Italian painter Titian has been auctioned for 17.5 million pounds (Approx Rs 18 crore). The painting, named, Rest on the Flight into Egypt, was made by the painter in 1510 when he was just 20 years old. The two feet wide, painted on wood shows Mary cradling baby Jesus with Joseph sitting close to them.
The artwork was stolen from Longleat House in Wiltshire in 1995. It was found by famous detective Charles Hill after seven years of work. Charles Hill, who is also credited with recovering Edvard Munch’s The Scream, found the above-mentioned masterpiece inside a plastic bag in London. The painting was without its frame but was not badly damaged.
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt was auctioned by Christie’s. Its estimated auction price was believed to be between 12 million pounds to 15 million pounds, but this turned out to be an underestimation. The painting was owned by the Longleat estate. The current Lord Bath, who inherited the estate in 2020 told BBC that this is the most profitable time to auction the painting. He said, “We have a considerable long-term investment strategy at Longleat and have decided to sell this asset to further this agenda at a time when the market for paintings of such unique rarity is so strong.”
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt has had an illustrious history of owners. It was once owned by Austrian Emperor Joseph II and even framed at Vienna’s Belvedere Palace. In 1809, it fell at the hands of French troopers who looted the painting for Napoleon’s museum in Paris.
At some point, it was acquired by a Scottish landowner who auctioned it to the 4th Marquess of Bath at a Christie’s auction in 1878. At the time, the painting was sold for 350 guineas (about 35,000 pounds today or approximately 35 lakhs). Since then it stayed with his family, until now. It was stolen from the Longleat stately home in 1995 before it was recovered in 2002 by detective Charles Hill.
Andrew Fletcher, Christie’s global head of the Old Masters Department, spoke to BBC before the auction. He described the painting as a “truly outstanding example of the artist’s pioneering approach to both the use of colour and the representation of the human form in the natural world.”
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