17th-century master Peter Paul Rubens’s work “Portrait of a Lady” sold for the equivalent of $3.4 million at an auction in Warsaw, making it the most expensive work of art ever sold on the Polish market. reported the house in charge of the auction.
The painting sold for 14.4 million zlotys, including the auction fee, at an auction of works by old masters on Thursday night at the Desa Unicum house.
It is the first painting by Rubens to have been released on the Polish market. It was put up for sale by a British citizen.
Before the auction, the value of the portrait, made in oil on canvas in which a dark-haired woman appears in a rich black velvet dress, had been estimated between 18 and 24 million zlotys (4.5 million to 6 million). .
According to experts, it was created by Rubens between 1620-25, with the collaboration of his Antwerp workshop, and its image is similar to that of the painter’s first wife, Isabella Brant, or that of a member of the Duarte family of jewelers, who they were neighbors of Rubens. The model could also come from the Spanish royal court.
In the past the painting belonged, among others, to the 18th century British painter Sir Peter Lely. It was displayed in public for the last time in 1965.
