Overview
- The work sold well above expectations, with reports citing either €2.3 million (AP) or €2.94 million (AFP/Le Monde), reflecting differing tallies of sale price and premiums.
- Auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat discovered the painting last year in a private Paris townhouse while preparing the property for sale.
- Experts including Nils Büttner and the Rubenianum confirmed authorship using X-ray imaging and microscopic pigment analysis characteristic of Rubens’ technique.
- Provenance traces the piece to 19th-century painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau’s family, and the composition was previously known only through an early engraving.
- Scholars note the scene’s rarity in Rubens’ oeuvre, depicting Christ dead on the cross with blood and water from the side wound, and the buyer has not been identified.