500-year-old stolen painting found in plastic bag fetches ?18 crore at auction

In an astonishing series of events, a very rare work created by Titian, a leading Italian artist, attracted an incredible ?17.5 million when it went under the hammer. Painted in 1510 as the artist was turning twenty, it was named “Rest on the Flight into Egypt” where Mary holds baby Christ while Joseph is nearby. This masterpiece measuring two by three feet in width has been painted on wood and had a great deal story-wise.

Painting was stolen in 1995

In 1995, the picture was robbed from the Longleat House in Wiltshire, making its voyage through the art world even more spectacular. Seven years later, it was found by Charles Hill, a widely recognized investigator. This time he came across it in a plastic bag somewhere in London along with some other priceless masterpieces inclding Edvard Munch’s "The Scream". The picture was without its frame but did not appear to have been seriously harmed.

Edvard Munch’s "The Scream"

Christie’s recently auctioned “Rest on the Flight into Egypt” and it fetched an amount of money that exceeded earlier estimates of ?12-15 million. The piece is originally from the Longleat estate, at present under study in the scope of his lordship Lord Bath after he inherited it last year, which he noted as being the right time for disposal, according to BBC.

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He stated, "We have a considerable long-term investment strategy at Longleat and have decided to sell this asset to further this agenda at a time when the market for paintings of such unique rarity is so strong."

The artwork is of great artistic value with an illustrious history. It used to be part of the Austrian Emperor Joseph II’s collection and was also exhibited in Belvedere Palace in Vienna.??

Representational Image

In 1809, it was seized by French troops for Napoleon’s museum in Paris. Later, a Scottish landowner acquired the painting and auctioned it to the 4th Marquess of Bath at a Christie’s auction in 1878 for 350 guineas, equivalent to about ?35,000 (approximately Rs 35 lakhs) today. The painting remained with the Bath family until its theft in 1995 and subsequent recovery in 2002 by Charles Hill.

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Andrew Fletcher, Christie’s global head of the Old Masters Department, lauded the painting in an interview with the BBC before the auction. He described it as a “truly outstanding example of the artist’s pioneering approach to both the use of colour and the representation of the human form in the natural world.”

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