In March last year, Giada Damen, a specialist in Christie’s Old Master Drawings department in New York, received an email containing an image of a drawing whose owner was seeking a valuation. Damen immediately recognized that the work was unusual, although it would take months of close study to confirm her first impression.
Damen traveled to meet the owner, who lives on the west coast of the United States. The red chalk drawing, a study of a foot, had been inherited from the consignor’s grandmother and had remained in the family since the late eighteenth century. With the owner’s consent, the drawing was brought to New York for examination. Because the sheet had been mounted onto another support, it was analyzed using infrared reflectography. This revealed additional anatomical studies in black chalk on the reverse. An inscription at the bottom of the sheet, pointing to a sixteenth-century origin, was identified as “Michelangelo Bona Roti”, a form of attribution known from other drawings by Michelangelo Buonarroti.
See also: Michelangelo: From Man to Genius
Comparison with a drawing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art proved central to the attribution. The Met sheet contains red chalk studies for the figure of the Libyan Sibyl in the Sistine Chapel ceiling, with further anatomical drawings in black chalk on the reverse that closely correspond to those found on the newly examined work. Further confirmation came from a copy of the Met drawing held at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, which also includes a study of the same foot. Together, these parallels confirmed the drawing from the west coast as an autograph work by Michelangelo Buonarroti.
See also: Masterpieces of the Sistine Chapel: The World-Famous Frescoes
Of the many thousands of drawings Michelangelo is believed to have produced, only around 600 survive today. The majority are held in museum collections, with roughly ten remaining in private hands. Of the studies connected specifically to the Sistine Chapel frescoes, only about 50 are known. The rediscovery of the study for the right foot of the Libyan Sibyl therefore represents a notable addition to Michelangelo scholarship. It is also the first time a study related to the Sistine Chapel frescoes has appeared at auction.
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“Making this discovery has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me,” said Giada Damen in a press release. “It has been a real pleasure to study this special drawing over the past nine months with my colleagues in the Old Master Drawings Department. We are thrilled to be able to share this finding with the wider world now and proud to bring this exceptional work to the market. I am deeply grateful to the owner for entrusting this work to Christie's and for his continued collaboration. I also want to acknowledge and express my sincere thanks to the leading international experts we consulted, all of whom have unanimously endorsed the attribution of this drawing to Michelangelo.”
The drawing will be offered at Christie’s Old Master and British Drawings sale in New York on February 5, with an estimate of $1.5 million to $2.5 million.
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Andrew Fletcher, Head of Old Masters at Christie’s, added: “The discovery of a study relating to the Sistine Chapel, a work of art that is arguably the keystone of the Italian Renaissance, has been one of the most memorable moments of my career. Giada's discovery—made more than 500 years after the drawing's creation—represents Christie's expertise at its finest. 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. In the field of Old Masters, it is difficult to conceive of a more meaningful discovery, and we are thrilled to be offering it for sale in New York on February 5.”
See also: Will a Rembrandt Drawing Break Auction Records?
The Michelangelo drawing is not the only high-profile work coming to auction in New York. On February 4, Rembrandt van Rijn’s Young Lion at Rest will be offered at Sotheby’s, with an estimate of $15 million to $20 million.
