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[NEWS] Small-Scale da Vinci Drawing Expected to Set New Auction Record This Summer
May 13, 2021
Leonardo da Vinci's 'Head of a Bear' (around 1480). COURTESY CHRISTIE'S
A drawing of a bear's head by Leonardo da Vinci is seen fetching up to $16.9 million, potentially setting a record, when it heads to auction in July, Christie's said on May 8.
Measuring approximately 8 square inches, the drawing is part of a series of small-scale studies of animals that the famous polymath executed around 1480. Da Vinci produced Head of a Bear on paper using a silverpoint, depicting the carnivore with a gentle gaze. The work is one of only eight known da Vinci drawings still in private hands, not counting those owned by the British Royal Collection and the Devonshire Collections at Chatsworth.
Bidding representatives react after Leonardo da Vinci's "Salvator Mundi" sold for $400 million at Christie's, Nov. 15, 2017, in NY.
(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)
Ben Hall, the old master paintings chairman at Christie’s New York, described the drawing as “one of the most important works from the Renaissance still in private hands”. He said: “The work has been owned by some of the most distinguished collectors in the field of old masters across many centuries, not least the present owner who has owned it since 2008.”
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The drawing's ownership can be traced to British painter Thomas Lawrence and upon his death in 1830, it was passed to his dealer Samuel Woodburn. He sold it to Christie's in 1860 for 2.50 pounds (USD 3.50), according to the auction house. Its current owner has had it since 2008, it said. It has previously been displayed at museums including the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, and the National Gallery in London. The drawing will be exhibited in New York and Hong Kong before hitting the block later this summer.
Christie’s in London. Photo by Christies1766, via Wikimedia Commons.
That could beat the 2001 sale for Da Vinci's "Horse and Rider" for more than 8 million pounds, a record for a drawing by the Italian Renaissance master, according to Christie's.
"I have every reason to believe we will achieve a new record in July for 'Head of a Bear', one of the last drawings by Leonardo that can be expected to come onto the market," Stijn Alsteens, International Head of Department, Old Masters Group, Christie's Paris, said in a statement.
"Head of a Bear" will go on display at Christie's in New York on May 8, then in Hong Kong later in the month before going on show in London in June.
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