Titian masterpiece stolen and found at bus stop sells for €20m

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Renaissance painter Titian’s painting “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt” has fetched a record price at London auction house Christie’s after being stolen several times.

Its sale for €20.6 million (£17.5 million) sets a new world record for Titian works, according to auctioneers.

The 1510 painting was first stolen by Napoleon’s troops from the Belvedere Palace in Vienna in the early 19th century. More recently, in 1995, it was stolen from Longleat House in England, where it had hung since its acquisition by the 4th Marquess of Bath in 1878. A reward of £100,000 has been offered for its safe return.

It was found seven years later without its frame in a plastic bag at a London bus stop. The former Scotland Yard detective who found it, Charles Hill, is also credited with helping to recover other famous works of art, including “The Scream” by Edvard Munch‘.

Andrew Fletcher, global director of Christie’s Old Masters department, said the painting is “a truly exceptional example of the artist’s pioneering approach to both the use of colour and the depiction of the human form in the natural world”.

“The Rest on the Flight into Egypt” is the most important work by Titian to hit the auction market “in more than a generation,” he believes.

Indeed, as one of the last religious works of the Renaissance master still in private hands, Christie’s auction of paintings has attracted considerable attention.

Lord Bath, who succeeded his father as Marquess of Bath in 2020 to inherit the Longleat estate, said the painting – which depicts the Holy Family pausing on their journey to Egypt – had an “extraordinary story”.

“We have a significant long-term investment strategy at Longleat and have decided to sell this asset to advance this programme at a time when the market for paintings of such unique rarity is so strong,” he said ahead of the sale.