A view of the auction house as the painting went under the hammer on Sunday Michel Euler/AP
The painting "Christ on the Cross" is pictured above on display in Paris prior to the auction.
Peter Paul Rubens masterpiece, long misidentified as work of lesser artist, sells for $2.7 million
Rubens painted “Christ on the Cross” around 1620-1625, but it was only recently rediscovered at a mansion in the French capital.
“The work is reborn in front of us and leaves us speechless in the face of such power and beauty,” auction house chairman Jean-Pierre Osenat said in the statement. “The painting is magic: It holds all of the strength, the genius and the faith of Rubens,” he added.
This is not the first time that a Rubens painting has made a dramatic return to the public eye. In 2002, a Rubens that had previously been attributed to less well-known artist Jan van den Hoecke sold for $76 million at auction, almost 10 times its estimate.
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