Rubens masterpiece, long misidentified as work of lesser artist, sells for US$2.7 million

A view of the auction house as the painting went under the hammer on Sunday, November 30. (Michel Euler/AP via CNN Newsource)

A painting by Flemish Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens that had been out of the public eye for centuries has sold for 2.3 million euros (US$2.7 million) at an auction in Paris.

Rubens painted “Christ on the Cross” around 1620-1625, but it was only recently rediscovered at a mansion in the French capital before going under the hammer on Sunday, auction house Osenat said in a statement Monday.

The painting measures 105.5 by 73.5 centimetres (41.5 by 28.9 inches) and “is in a generally good state of preservation,” according to the listing.

It was acquired by French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau, who lived from 1825 to 1905, and had remained in the family home in Paris until his descendants recently decided to sell it, Osenat said.

Although Bougereau may have been aware of the significance of the work, his descendants believed it had been made by one of Rubens’ assistants rather than by the master himself, which would have made it considerably less valuable.

However, a multi-stage authentication process, driven by German art historian Nils Büttner, who is president of the Rubens research organization Centrum Rubenianum, confirmed that it was in fact an original, according to the auctioneers.

This process included X-ray analysis and the microscopic inspection of paint pigments.

The painting’s story appears to have inspired a great deal of interest among collectors, with the sale price exceeding the auctioneers’ estimate of 1-2 million euros (US$1.16-2.33 million).

“The work is reborn in front of us and leaves us speechless in the face of such power and beauty,” auction house chairman Jean-Pierre Osenat said in the statement.

“The painting is magic: It holds all of the strength, the genius and the faith of Rubens,” he added.

This is not the first time that a Rubens painting has made a dramatic return to the public eye.

In 2002, a Rubens that had previously been attributed to less well-known artist Jan van den Hoecke sold for $76 million at auction, almost 10 times its estimate.