It is the kind of find that every collector dreams of. At an estate sale in the US state of Massachusetts in 2017, an unknown American bought an old pen drawing of a Madonna and Child seated on a grassy bench. Cost: 30 dollars, 27 euros.
The drawing was presented last week at the Master Drawings fair in New York as an unknown masterpiece dating from 1503 by Albrecht Dürer, the famous German Renaissance artist. British art dealer Agnews offered the drawing with an asking price of reportedly $50 million, about 45 million euros.
“Dürer drawings are incredibly rare, they never come on the market. You only experience this once in your life”, said Agnews director Anthony Crichton-Stuart v Artnet News.
Watermark
The drawing has the monogram of Dürer. Christof Metzger, chief curator of the Albertina Museum in Vienna and a leading authority on the artist, has declared the drawing genuine after examination. He says he will include her in Dürer’s forthcoming catalog raisonné. Giulia Bartrum, former curator of German prints and drawings in the British Museum, also believes that the drawing is authentic.
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Both experts suspect that the work was made around 1503 as a preliminary study for Dürer’s well-known drawing and watercolor, The virgin among a multitude of animalsin the collection of the Albertina.
The owner of the drawing, who wishes to remain anonymous, showed the drawing to many experts in vain. It was only when the man happened to come into contact with a Boston collector who is a shareholder in art dealership Agnews that the drawing was seriously examined. For example, a paper restorer confirmed the age of the paper used and also found the watermark characteristic of Dürer in it.
There is also some information about the origin. An architect who died in 2012 who lived outside of Boston had inherited the drawing. His grandfather probably bought the drawing in Paris in 1919.
Also read: Albrecht Dürer captured the soul of animals and plants on paper