Rare 15th-century Michelangelo sold for €23M

By Shweta Desai

PARIS (AA) - A rare 15th-century drawing, reportedly the first nude sketch by Renaissance master Michelangelo, was sold for over €23 million at Christie's Paris auction house on Wednesday.

The drawing was expected to fetch €30 million but instead fetched a lower but still impressive price of €23.16 million.

The 33 x 20 centimeter (13 x 7.9 inches) ink sketch of three male figures with a prominent hunched-shoulder nude belonged to a private French collector.

The drawing, believed to be from the 1490s, remained in Turin, Italy until 1803. In 1907 it was sold anonymously in Paris under the "School of Michelangelo" classification, and from there made its way into a private collection.

It resurfaced in 2019 when Christie’s was asked to assess a collection in France. Furio Rinaldi, a New York-based old master drawings specialist, judged that the piece had been misattributed and “could be a genuine Michelangelo.” Paul Joannides, emeritus professor of art history at Cambridge University, concurred, describing the discovery as “a great drawing that no one knew existed.’’

Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564) was part of the cohort of genius figures who defined the Italian Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries. His masterpieces include a nude statue of David, a Pieta of Mary and Jesus in Florence, and the Sistine Chapel paintings of the Creation of Adam and the Last Judgement.