Michelangelo Drawing of a Foot Could Fetch $2M at Auction

"A 500-year-old Michelangelo drawing of a right foot used in a study for a portion of his Sistine Chapel ceiling mural could fetch $2 million at the auction house next February. The five-inch sketch, "The Libyan Sibyl on the Sistine Chapel ceiling" (1511-1512), has been privately owned by a Northern California collector whose family had reportedly owned the masterwork since the 1700s, passing it down through multiple generations."

"Its existence was completely unknown to scholars until a Christie's specialist in the Old Master Drawings department, Giada Damen, rediscovered the red-chalk-on-paper work in a digital photograph sent to the auction house as part of a batch of inquiries before it was authenticated earlier this year. "It is the kind of story that inspires both the academic and commercial art worlds, while also capturing the imagination of virtually anyone who encounters it, regardless of their background in art," said Andrew Fletcher, the department's global head,"

A five-inch red-chalk study of a right foot from the Libyan Sibyl on the Sistine Chapel ceiling (1511–1512) by Michelangelo is slated for auction at Christie's with an estimate near $2 million. The sheet has belonged to a Northern California family reportedly since the 1700s and remained unknown to scholars until Christie's Old Master Drawings specialist Giada Damen identified it in a digital photograph; the work was authenticated earlier this year. Michelangelo favored red chalk for live-model studies; roughly 600 of his sheets survive, with most held by institutions, making this privately held example rare.

Read at Hyperallergic