Overview
- The painting, depicting Christ on the cross, was found in September 2024 during an inventory of a private townhouse in Paris’s 6th arrondissement.
- Specialists confirmed authorship through high‑resolution imaging, pigment analysis, technical imaging, and microscopic study endorsed by scholar Nils Büttner.
- Osenat auctioned the work in Versailles on November 30, with reports diverging between €2.94 million including fees and €2.3 million (about $2.7 million).
- Provenance research links the canvas to 19th‑century painter William Bouguereau or his daughter, with the piece remaining in the family’s Paris residence for generations.
- Scholars note the iconography is unusual for Rubens, highlighting a rare depiction of Christ as a lifeless body with blood and water from the side wound.