Goya Boosts Christie's Drawings Sale
Goya's "Bajan riņendo" sold for a surprising $4.5 million at Christie's Old Masters and 19th Century Drawings London auction Tuesday, more than double the $2 million estimate.
The drawing was one of three Goya drawings that highlighted Tuesday's sale. "Repentance" sold for $1.9 million and "Constable Lampiņos Stitched Into a Dead Horse" sold for $1.5 million.
The drawings came from Goya's private albums, a series of 550 works that the artist created during the last 30 years of his life (1796-1828) and never sold. The three sold at Christie's disappeared from record in 1877 after they were not purchased at a sale in Paris. They were recently rediscovered in excellent condition at the home of a Swiss family and have not been hung or framed in more than 200 years. Twelve pieces from the 1877 sale are apparently missing.
The sale generated a total of almost $12 million for Christie's.
