Titian’s early masterpiece Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1508) sold for £17.56 million ($22.17 million) at Christie’s London last night. The sale marks a new auction record for a work by the Renaissance artist, exceeding the $16.9 million paid for A Sacra Conversazione (c. 1560) at Sotheby’s in 2011.
The work—which sold within its presale estimate of £15 million–£25 million ($18.75 million–$31.25 million)—was the top lot of Christie’s Old Masters I sale, which achieved an overall total of £43.59 million ($55.1 million). Also taking place last night at the auction house as part of its Classic Week series was The Exceptional Sale, which totaled £7.2 million ($9.1 million). All prices include fees.
“This result is a tribute to the impeccable provenance and quiet beauty of this sublime early masterpiece by Titian, which is one of the most poetic products of the artist’s youth,” said Christie’s UK chairman Orlando Rock of the Titian work. “This picture has captured the imaginations of audiences for more than half a millennia and will no doubt continue to do so.”
Rest on the Flight into Egypt, a wooden panel painting measuring 18 by 25 inches, illustrates Mary cradling baby Jesus under Joseph’s watchful gaze. The painting boasts remarkable provenance, having been at points owned by dukes, archdukes, and Holy Roman Emperors. The painting was stolen once by Napoleon in 1809 and then again in 1995 from the Longleat estate in Wilshire. It was recovered in 2002 in London, found without a frame in a plastic bag. The Longleat Trustees and Lord Bath, who inherited the Longleat estate from his father, offered the painting up for auction as part of their long-running investment strategy, according to Christie’s.
Aside from the Titian work, other notable results from the evening included Quentin Metsys’s The Madonna of the Cherries, which fetched £10.66 million ($13.46 million), breaking the artist’s previous auction record of $1.9 million for Mary in Prayer (c. 1500) set at Cologne’s Kunsthaus Lempertz in 2020. Another key sale included Frans Hals’s Portrait of a gentleman of the de Wolff family, possibly Joost de Wolff (1582/3–1666), which reached £5.71 million ($7.21 million).
