A newly discovered drawing by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti has been sold at Christie’s for 27.2 million dollars, the auction house’s press service reported.
“The newly discovered drawing was sold for a whopping 27.2 million dollars. This price is almost 20 times higher than its lowest estimate, setting a new record for Michelangelo’s work at auction. The previous record was 24.3 million dollars, paid for another drawing at Christie’s in Paris in 2022,” the report said.
Christie’s experts have identified the previously unknown drawing, made in red chalk, as depicting the right heel of Sisilla of Libya. The image of this ancient woman can be seen in the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. The work is one of about 50 drawings the artist created for the chapel in Rome.
The auction in New York lasted 45 minutes. The buyer was not identified. According to Christie’s, only about a dozen of the Italian artist’s paintings are in private collections worldwide.
