LONDON (WKRC) – A piece from Italian Renaissance painter Titian, which was stolen twice and recovered in plastic wrap at a bus stop, may sell in auction for $32 million.
“The Rest on the Flight into Egypt” is estimated to have been painted around the end of the 1510s, when Tiziano Vecelli (or Titian) was 20 or younger.
The painting depicts baby Jesus, Mary, and Joseph resting during their journey to Egypt after Joseph was warned in a dream that King Herod of Judea wanted to kill Jesus. “The Rest on the Flight to Egypt” is a common motif in Christian art, and has been painted by Titian, Correggio, Paris Bordone, Caravaggio, and many more.
Titian’s painting was likely commissioned, although it is not known by who. The first recorded ownership of the painting is in Bartolomeo della Nave’s collection, a Venetian spice merchant. When he died, his paintings were bought by Duke James Hamilton, who was executed soon after during the English Civil War. Archduke Leopold Wilhelm acquired it from there, and had a painting of his painting collection commissioned, which featured “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt.” Napoleonic troops stole the painting when France occupied Vienna and moved to Paris, but brought back to Vienna when Napoleon was no longer in power. It was then purchased by a Scottish landowner, then sold at auction, and eventually stolen straight off the wall of Longleat House in 1995.
The painting wouldn’t be seen again for seven years, until art detective Charles Hill found it wrapped in a plastic bag at a bus stop in London and returned it to Longleat House.
After over 500 years of changing hands, “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt” is back on the auction block at Christie’s, and it’s already estimated to sell somewhere between $19 million and $32 million.
“This is a painting, then, that has been coveted by aristocrats, archdukes and emperors alike: prized for its vividly coloured scene of familial affection within the natural world,” Christie’s said in a story on the painting. “Like its subjects, ‘The Rest on the Flight into Egypt’ has been on a long and eventful journey — a journey that’s far from over.”
