The Old Master category confirmed its strength last week with another record-setting week in New York, led by a $27 million Michelangelo drawing, a new Artemisia Gentileschi record at $5.7 million, and a Rembrandt Lion drawing from the Kaplan collection generating $18 million in support of wild cat preservation.
The week also saw the withdrawal from auction of an exceptionally rare double-sided panel by Antonello da Messina, initially estimated by Sotheby’s at $15 million, only to be acquired by Italy’s Ministry of Culture for $14.9 million ahead of the sale. The move, rare for the country, was justified on the grounds of the work’s cultural significance.
This record week follows both auction houses reporting all-time high total revenues in the category for 2025, after a particularly strong July auction round in London. With more than $200 million in Old Masters changing hands last week alone, the momentum of the category is unmistakable, as buyers, emerging from the boom-and-bust cycle of the contemporary market, increasingly gravitate toward historically validated names. Below, a closer look at the standout sales.
Christie’s strongest Classics Week in years
The auction house closed Classics Week with a remarkable $110,004,491 total, marking one of the strongest performances in the auction house’s history. Stealing the spotlight was Michelangelo’s five-inch study for arguably his most famous work, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, which sold for $27.2 million on the phone after a 45-minute bidding war in New York, setting a new world record for the artist at auction. The work, revealed to be a rare red chalk study for the foot of the Libyan Sibyl, arrived at Christie’s through the house’s online Request an Auction Estimate portal, after an unsuspecting owner submitted a photograph of a drawing inherited from his mother. The submission led to a major discovery by Christie’s specialist Giada Damen, who attributed the work to the Italian Renaissance master—the only known study for the Sistine Chapel ceiling still in private hands and one of just a handful of surviving examples. The drawing ultimately surpassed Michelangelo’s previous auction record of $24.3 million, set at Christie’s Paris in 2022, and achieved nearly 20 times its low estimate.
The Michelangelo drawing anchored Christie’s Old Master and British Drawings sale, which totaled $30,512,287. Other notable results included one of the most spectacular figure studies by Piranesi known today, which fetched $279,400, far exceeding its $80,000-120,000 estimate, and a sketch of a rural cottage in the Amsterdam countryside by Rembrandt, which sold within estimate at $254,000.
The sale followed Christie’s Old Master Paintings auction held the day before, which achieved $54,130,050 across 45 lots. The sale closed with a solid 84 percent sold by lot and a remarkable 118 percent sold (hammer plus buyer’s premium) against the low estimate, making this the best Old Masters auction at Christie’s New York since 2012.
Leading the evening was the psychologically intense, dramatic and rare Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Artemisia Gentileschi, which more than doubled its low estimate to achieve $5,687,000. One of only five known self-portraits by the artist—three of which are in museums—the work set a new record for the Italian Baroque painter, surpassing her previous high of $5.25 million (€4.7 million) for Lucrèce, sold at Artcurial Paris in 2019. The painting was first documented as having been acquired by a collector in Pisa in the past century, remaining with the family until 2016. The consignor acquired it in 2018 from Murphy & Partners, New York, and in recent years it was on long-term loan (2022-2025) to Oslo’s Nasjonalmuseet. Backed by extensive and recent literature confirming its historical significance, the work has also been promised as a loan to the exhibition “Artemisia Gentileschi: The Triumph of Painting” opening February 1, 2028, at The Nivaagaard Collection in Nivå, Denmark.
Also creating momentum in the sale was Canaletto’s grand veduta of Venice, The Bucintoro at the Molo on Ascension Day, which achieved $30,535,000. Originally commissioned by a member of the King family—very likely the Hon. Thomas King, later 5th Baron King—Canaletto captured “the pomp and ceremony as nobody else could” of the Venetian festival, which he also depicted in another version that sold last July at Christie’s for £31,935,000 ($43,851,545), setting a world record for the artist. Still, Andrew Fletcher, global head of Old Masters, described this result as another landmark moment for Christie’s and Canaletto. “We are very proud to have broken the world record for a Canaletto veduta last July in London, and today to have achieved another of the highest prices ever for a Canaletto view. Christie’s market leadership for Canaletto is a testament to the passion and expertise of our Old Masters team.” Notably, the painting was acquired by the consignor at Christie’s London on July 8, 2005, when it last sold from the collection of António de Sommer Champalimaud for $20,091,740 (£10,200,000) over a £6,000,000 high estimate. On that occasion, the work was studied in depth for the first time by leading historians Charles Beddington and Francis Russell.
Other top lots in the sale included rare-to-market masterpieces, such as Madonna and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist by Botticelli, which fetched $5,199,000. The tempera and oil on panel was first documented in the collection of writer and politician William Thomas Beckford and was sold at Christie’s as a Botticelli on June 12, 1854, where it was acquired for 520 guineas by Alexander Barker. Since then, the work changed hands multiple times, often returning to the Christie’s rostrum—allowing the auction house to maintain a complete and long-standing record of its provenance. The present consignor acquired it in the 1960s from art dealer Vittorio Frascione for her collection, which spans Switzerland, New York, and France.
Also achieving a seven-digit result was an animated scene by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Village Scene with the Flight into Egypt, in which sacred and mundane intersect. It sold for $2,027,000, surpassing its $1,500,000 high estimate. The painting was acquired at Dorotheum, Vienna, in April 2006 by Galerie de Jonckheere in Geneva, and later purchased in November that same year by the present owner.
In the same price tier was Jean Siméon Chardin’s The Diligent Mother (La Mère laborieuse), which sold from a New York collection for $2,027,000 against a $2,000,000 high estimate. Reflecting the market’s reevaluation of women artists, a portrait of a gentleman, three-quarter-length, attributed to the circle of Sofonisba Anguissola, also significantly outperformed its $80,000 high estimate, realizing $355,600 after fees. This occurred despite limited documentation—the only known provenance being its acquisition by the present consignor from Art Market, Paris—and no supporting literature confirming its reattribution. However, some expert observers supported the attribution based on the work’s soft modeling, sensitive treatment of light, and psychological depth, all characteristic of Sofonisba’s hand. The painting dates to just four years after Anguissola was invited to the court of King Philip II of Spain in Madrid, where she became attendant to his eldest daughter, teaching her drawing and painting and creating portraits of nearly the entire royal family.
The week opened for Christie’s with its Antiquities sale, which achieved $5,689,092 across 127 lots, with many works far exceeding their presale estimates. Leading the sale was an Assyrian gypsum cuneiform relief dated to the reign of Ashurnasirpal II (883-859 B.C.), which sold for $457,200—more than three times its estimate of $80,000-120,000. This precious carved inscription, one of the earliest surviving testaments to human writing, had previously belonged to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and was sold at Christie’s New York in December 2005 (lot 104) to benefit the Acquisitions Fund.
Record results anchor Sotheby’s Old Masters week
Sotheby’s also reported strong sell-through across all its auctions, closing its first Old Masters Week at the Breuer with a total of $94.8 million—above the presale high estimate of $93.1 million. The week launched with particularly strong results in the drawings segment, led by the Collection of Diane A. Nixon, one of the most significant private drawing collections to reach the market in recent years. The collection was previously exhibited at major institutions, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Morgan Library and Museum in New York, the Smith College Museum of Art, and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum at Cornell University. Bidding came from 18 countries and the sale totaled $10.8 million against a $7.7 million high estimate, with 95 percent of lots sold and 58 percent of works exceeding their high estimates. Several artist records were set during the sale.
One of the standout lots was Mattia Preti’s red chalk, double-sided sheet Recto: Study for the Figure of Adrian Fortescue, which fetched $1,758,000—shattering its $300,000 high estimate and setting a new auction record for the artist on paper, as well as the second-highest price ever achieved for Preti at auction. Nixon had acquired the work from leading Old Masters dealer Colnaghi, New York, in conjunction with a 2001 show at Adam Williams Fine Art Ltd. in London. The drawing is believed to be a preparatory study for Preti’s commission for the grand-scale redecoration of the Conventual Church of Saint John in Valletta, now the Co-Cathedral of Saint John. Further supporting its attribution and historical importance, the drawing was previously exhibited at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. in 2007, the Smith College Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, and most recently at Naples’ Museo di Capodimonte in the 2009 exhibition “Ritorno al Barocco, da Caravaggio a Vanvitelli.”
Another record for the artist on paper was set by Annibale Carracci’s Study of a Tree, which more than doubled its high estimate to achieve $863,600 (est. $300,000-400,000). The final price was three times what it fetched when it last sold in 1999 for $288,500 to a Vermont collection. The drawing most recently appeared in the 2012 W.M. Brady & Co. exhibition Master Drawings, 1530-1920 in New York, where it was acquired by Diane A. Nixon.
Notable results were also achieved for two religious drawings by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo. The Madonna and Child Appearing to Saint Philip Neri realized $457,200—more than triple its $120,000 high estimate—while The Annunciation fetched $571,500 against a $350,000 high estimate, becoming the artist’s second-highest auction result for a work on paper.
Expectations were also exceeded by Jean-Antoine Watteau’s A Man Playing the Guitar, which sold for $825,500 after a high estimate of $1,000,000, and Carel Fabritius’s Christ and the Woman of Samaria, which achieved $762,000—more than six times its high $120,000 estimate. An emotionally vivid portrait of a man with a moustache by Gian Lorenzo Bernini sold for $139,700 against its $120,000 high estimate, as part of a group of works on paper the artist is known to have given to relatives and friends.
The drawing-focused day continued with the landmark sale Master Works on Paper from Five Centuries, which realized $19.8 million—marking the highest total for an Old Master Drawings sale in Sotheby’s history. With a solid 83 percent sell-through rate and 47 percent of lots selling above their high estimates, the total was significantly bolstered by the highly anticipated sale of Rembrandt’s masterful Young Lion Resting.
Consigned by billionaire collector and philanthropist Thomas S. Kaplan to benefit Panthera, the big cat conservation organization he co-founded in 2006, the drawing sold for $17,860,000, setting a record for a drawing by the artist, though falling short of its original $20 million high estimate. Only six lion drawings by Rembrandt are known to exist, with the remaining five in major public institutions: the British Museum, which owns two believed to depict the same lion, the Louvre in Paris, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam. Kaplan owned two of the most important Rembrandt drawings still in private hands but chose to sell this one—the first he ever acquired, from Otto Naumann Ltd., New York, in 2005—with the aim of raising awareness for Panthera ahead of its 20th anniversary, as he told Observer prior to the sale. Today, Panthera has advanced big-cat conservation efforts across dozens of countries, with tangible successes in protecting tigers, lions, snow leopards and jaguars. The drawing had previously been widely exhibited, including in multiple exhibitions drawn from Kaplan’s Leiden Collection, one of the world’s most important private collections of Rembrandt and Dutch Golden Age art.
Other notable results punctuated the sale, including Canaletto’s Study of a Merchant Vessel, which sold for $444,500 (est. $200,000-300,000). The drawing had previously passed through Sotheby’s in January 2010, when it hammered at a similar level but ultimately sold for $542,500 after fees. As noted in the catalogue, a vessel closely resembling the one depicted appears in Canaletto’s painting The Bacino di San Marco: Looking East, now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
A further standout was Gabriel-François Doyen’s An Allegory of Fishing (The Triumph of Neptune and Amphitrite), which exceeded its high estimate by more than 11 times, selling for $228,600 and setting a new auction record for the artist. The large-scale, exceptionally well-preserved drawing is related to Doyen’s ambitious painting La Pêche and was acquired by the consignor in the 2000s from Galerie L’Estranger in Paris.
The auction week continued on February 5 with Light and Life: The Lester L. Weindling Collection, which offered a tightly focused selection of 12 lots and closed with white-glove results totaling $16.8 million, with 42 percent of works exceeding their high estimates. The sale was led by Jan van de Cappelle’s Shipping Scene on a Calm Sea with a Jetty at Left, which achieved $2,368,000 over a $3 million high estimate, followed closely by Salomon van Ruysdael’s River View with the Town of Weesp at $2,246,000 (est. $1.8-2.5 million). David Teniers the Younger’s The Potters Fair at Ghent significantly outperformed expectations, realizing $1,636,000 after a $800,000 high estimate, while Pieter Claesz’s Still Life with Assorted Fruit matched that price point at $1,636,000 (est. $800,000-1,200,000), marking the second-highest auction result for the artist.
Momentum continued with the 45-lot Master Paintings & Works of Art Part I, which totaled $27.9 million, with 85 percent sold by lot and 56 percent of works selling above their high estimates. Bidders from 20 countries participated, with demand extending from Asia to contemporary collectors active across the sale.
The absolute star of the sale was initially expected to be the ultra-rare, jewel-like double-sided panel by Sicilian Renaissance master Antonello da Messina, Ecce Homo; Saint Jerome in Penitence, estimated at $10-15 million. A true signature masterpiece, the panel unites two evocative compositions that exemplify Antonello’s innovative use of softly modulated light and his groundbreaking naturalism in rendering human emotion and psychological presence. Its exceptional quality immediately attracted intense interest, and the work was ultimately withdrawn to be sold ahead of the auction to Italy’s Ministry of Culture for $14.9 million. While an Antonello da Messina appearing at auction is itself a rarity, an Italian state acquisition from an international auction is probably even rarer, justified by the actual uniqueness of this masterpiece.
After this high-profile exit, leadership of the sale passed to a rare, fully attributed work by Rococo master Jean-Honoré Fragonard, whose Head of a Bearded Man soared to $2,734,000 against a $600,000-800,000 estimate—a result that underscores how Rococo’s language of intimacy and deflection continues to resonate in unsettled times. Fragonard’s auction record remains £17,106,500 (about $27.9 million), set at Bonhams in London in December 2013. The result reaffirmed that truly museum-grade paintings by top-name artists, when supported by strong attribution and narrative, can still command multi-million-dollar prices, while lesser compositions, workshop or circle works, and decorative genre scenes remain far less predictable.
A Portrait of a Bearded Man Wearing a Cream Doublet, circa 1545, more broadly attributed to the French or Flemish School, also exceeded expectations, selling for $2,307,000—more than seven times its high estimate. The painting last appeared at auction at Christie’s London in May 1932, when it was acquired by Frank T. Sabin, before passing to Anton Philips in Eindhoven in 1937 and later descending by inheritance to the present consignor.
Also exceeding expectations was an exquisite mille-fleurs, or “thousand flowers,” Franco-Flemish tapestry consigned from the Pritzker collection, which soared to $1,941,000 over a $500,000 high estimate after a 10-minute bidding battle. Representing an imaginary garden intended to evoke Eden, populated by stylized flowers and mythological creatures such as unicorns, the 16th-century tapestry is believed to be among the largest and most complete surviving examples of its type.
Meanwhile, Jan Lievens’s Allegory of the Five Senses met its estimate, selling for $2,612,000, as did the 15th-century Madonna and Child Enthroned, attributed to the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, which realized $868,000 (est. $700,000-1,000,000) after recently being featured in the Yale University Art Gallery 2018 exhibition “Leonardo: Discoveries from Verrocchio’s Studio” as lent from the Alana Collection—likely also the consignor.
Among the top lots, Biagio d’Antonio’s Portrait of a Young Man Wearing a Red Berretto nearly doubled its high estimate to achieve $2,307,000, setting an auction record for the artist. With a fully documented provenance and extensive literature, the painting had last been publicly seen in an exhibition at M. Knoedler & Co. in 1941, lent anonymously, and earlier included in the Royal Academy’s Winter Exhibition of 1886. Its provenance traces a clear and continuous passage through prominent private collections, beginning with Barbara Woolworth Hutton in Santa Monica by 1958, followed by its anonymous sale at Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, on 7 June 1978, and subsequent ownership through Dino Fabri in Paris, Harari & Johns in London, Derek Johns, and finally the present collector, who acquired it in 1999.
Another highlight was Giovanni Bellini and Workshop’s Woman at Her Toilette Holding a Mirror, which sold for $2,020,000 against a $800,000 high estimate. The painting came from the estate of Stanley Moss, the American poet, publisher, and cultural figure best known as the longtime head of Ulysses Press, and was supported by extensive scholarly literature and exhibition history, having appeared in major museum exhibitions over the past decade at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The painting was originally acquired by Moss from the Contini Bonacossi family, along with Jacopo Tintoretto’s Allegory of Music, also featured in the sale. First recorded in the early 20th century in the collection of Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi in Florence, the work remained with the family for generations before being acquired by the consignor in 2002.
Also included in the auction was a Roman-Egyptian Mummy Portrait of a Man from the Flavian Period, circa late 1st century A.D., which soared to $889,000, becoming the second-highest Fayum portrait sold at auction. Another six-figure result came from Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s pair of marble sculptures, Jeune Fille à la Coquille and Pêcheur à la Coquille (1827-1875), which sold within estimate at $1,575,000 as the works returned to the market after being on long-term loan to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto since May 2023.
The week closed at Sotheby’s with a series of steady, confidence-driven results underscoring the Old Masters market’s depth across price tiers and periods, extending well beyond headline trophies. The 19th & 20th Century European Art sale on February 5 added $5.2 million, with 65 percent sold by lot and nearly half of works exceeding their high estimates, led by William Bouguereau’s Glaneuse (Young Girl in a Wheat Field) and an auction record for Peter Ilsted. That same day, the Rothschild Vienna Mahzor achieved $6.4 million, becoming one of the most valuable Hebrew manuscripts ever sold at auction and remaining unique as the only restituted example. Momentum carried into February 6 with Master Paintings & Sculpture from Four Millennia Part II, which totaled $7.1 million, posted an 86 percent sell-through rate, and delivered multiple artist records, before the online European Art sale added a further $860,000—rounding out a week that reinforced sustained demand for historically anchored works across categories and price points.
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