A famous painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Titian, once discovered in a plastic bag at a London bus stop, could fetch as much as $32 million at auction on Tuesday, July 2.
The artist's early masterpiece, 'Rest on the Flight into Egypt,' will be the main attraction of Christie's Old Masters Part I sale in London. This will be the painting's first time to come to the market in over 145 years.
The painting shows Jesus, Mary, and Joseph taking a break on their way to Egypt after learning that Herod, King of Judea, wanted to kill the young Christ.
According to Christie's website, the description of the painting says, "Her feet planted firmly on the ground, the Madonna wraps Jesus in a protective embrace at the center of the canvas."
"The pair are shown in suspended animation, in an intimate moment of tenderness between mother and son. The latter, somewhat fidgety, leans into his mother, tugging at her hair."
Titian, whose real name was Tiziano Vecellio, created the work during the early years of his career in the 16th century.
The painting was stolen by Napoleonic troops during the French occupation of Vienna in 1809 and taken to Paris after changing hands among several European aristocrats.
In 1815, it was returned to Vienna and passed through several private collections before ending with John Alexander Thynne, 4th Marquess of Bath, in Wiltshire, England.
It was taken in 1995 from Thynne's ancestors' Longleat estate, and it was lost for seven years until art investigator Charles Hill discovered it at a London bus stop.
Christie said that the painting was coveted by aristocrats, archdukes, and emperors alike and prized for its vividly colored scene of familial affection within the natural world.
