Stolen Art DealerTitian’s small oil painting of the Holy Family resting in a landscape: Joseph in a yellow cloak sits on a dark rock at left, while the Virgin in a red robe and blue mantle leans her head against the infant Christ, who hugs her neck, under a tree, with a tower on a wooded hill at upper right.
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Catalogue No. 03 · Christie’s · London
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Sold for
$22.2million
Christie’s, London · 2 July 2024 · 100th of 392 in the Record Book
Confirmed by two sourcesAbout $23.8 million in today’s money: 270 years of the typical US household’s income. Source
- Artist
- Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian (Venetian), c. 1488/90–1576)
- Title
- The Rest on the Flight into Egypt
- Date
- c. 1508–10
- Medium
- Oil on canvas, laid on panel
- Size
- 46.2 × 62.9 cm (18¼ × 24¾ in)
Look closer
Mary and the Child
The Virgin lowers her eyes and tilts her head against the infant Christ, who wraps his arms around her neck and presses his face to her cheek. This is the emotional centre of the picture, and it shows the tenderness of a very young Titian.
Joseph in yellow
Bearded Joseph sits on a rock at the left in a yellow cloak over a blue tunic, looking toward the Virgin and Child. The strong colour against the dark rock shows how Titian used colour in a small picture, and his turned head links the two halves of the composition.
Listen to the story
The narration from our Reel, about a minute long.
Read the narration
It turned up in a bag. At a bus stop. Titian painted it around fifteen-ten, when he was about twenty. The Holy Family, fleeing Herod. Mary rests her cheek against her son's. Joseph keeps watch from his rock. It won't be enough. In eighteen-oh-nine, French troops looted it from Vienna for the Musée Napoléon. It went back in eighteen fifteen. How it left Vienna again is a mystery. From eighteen seventy-eight, this small, darkened canvas hung at Longleat, in England. In January nineteen ninety-five, thieves reportedly used a ladder and smashed a window to take it. Mary and her son resurfaced in two thousand two. In twenty twenty-four, they went to auction. Sold, for twenty-two point two million dollars. A new auction record for Titian. And that bus stop? Ex-detective Charley Hill says a tipster led him there. An army took her. Thieves took her. Mary never once looks up. Not bad for something found in a bag at a bus stop. Follow Stolen Art Dealer: the story behind the price, every day.
Titian painted this small canvas in Venice around 1510, when he was about twenty. By 1651 it belonged to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, and a 1659 Habsburg inventory describes the Virgin “in a red dress and blue mantle” and Joseph “in a yellow mantle”.
In 1809 French troops looted it from Vienna for the Musée Napoléon. It reportedly went back in 1815. How it later left Vienna again is undocumented.
From 1878 it hung at Longleat, a country house in England, until January 1995, when thieves reportedly used a ladder and smashed a window to take it. In 2002 it turned up in a bag at a bus stop, reportedly in Richmond, London.
On 2 July 2024 it sold at Christie’s London for £17,560,000 with fees, about $22.2 million. That was a new auction record for Titian, beating the $16.9 million paid for another of his paintings in 2011. It is small, darkened and early: a very young Titian, with a history that includes a looting and a burglary.
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The sale
- Auction house
- Christie’s, London
- Date
- 2 July 2024
- Lot
- 8
- Estimate
- £15–25 million
- Sold for
- $22.2 million (including buyer’s premium) · £17,560,000
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Provenance
Before 1632
First documented in the Venetian collection of Bartolomeo della Nave, a spice merchant who died in 1632. Reported
Before 1649
Passed to James, 3rd Marquess of Hamilton, according to The Art Newspaper. The date and the agent of the sale are not settled. Reported
By 1651
Owned by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, whose Brussels gallery David Teniers the Younger painted. It later stayed in the imperial collection in Vienna, in the Belvedere from 1781. Reported
1809
Looted from Vienna by French troops for the Musée Napoléon.
1815
Returned to Vienna. How it later left again is not documented. Reported
Before 1864
Owned by the Scottish collector Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar, who died in 1864. Reported
1878
Sold at Christie’s for 350 guineas to the dealer Colnaghi, reportedly for the 4th Marquess of Bath. It then hung at Longleat House, Wiltshire. Reported
6 January 1995
Stolen from Longleat.
2002
Recovered without its frame, found in a bag at a bus stop in London.
2 July 2024
Sold at Christie’s London, lot 8, by the 8th Marquess of Bath and the Longleat Trustees for £17,560,000 with premium.
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Sources
- The Art Newspaper: Titian’s youthful canvas of the Rest on the Flight into Egypt goes for auction at Christie’s (28 June 2024)
- Finestre sul Arte: London, Titian’s twice-stolen early painting goes up for auction at Christie’s
- Euronews: Titian stolen and found at bus stop sells for €20m (3 July 2024)
- Barnebys: Stolen Titian breaks auction record
- HENI News: Titian sells for $22.18M, new auction record for an Italian Old Master
Prices include the buyer’s premium, in US dollars at the time of sale, unless marked as a hammer price.
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