Twice Stolen Titian Painting Sells for Record $22 Million

A Titian masterpiece, once looted by Napoleon’s troops and part of royal collections for centuries, caused a sensation when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found in an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a south-west London bus stop by an art detective, and returned.

This week, the oil painting “The Rest on the Flight into Egypt” sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s, a record for the Renaissance artist, whom the museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Before the sale in April, the auction house had listed it as “the most important work by Titian to come to auction in more than a generation.”

“This result is a tribute to the impeccable provenance and quiet beauty of this sublime early masterpiece by Titian, which is one of the most poetic products of the artist’s youth,” Orlando Rock, chairman of Christie’s UK, said in a statement.

The small 18 1/4 x 24 3/4-inch canvas is believed to have been painted around 1510, the auction house said.

It is inspired by a biblical event, when Joseph took Mary and young Jesus to Egypt after a dream warned him that King Herod was seeking to kill his son, Christie’s said. The painting depicts Mary cradling Jesus while Joseph looks on in a rural setting.

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The colors are bright and rich, dominated by primary hues such as Mary’s deep red dress and ultramarine blue coat.

Titian is known for his use of the “colorito” technique, in which color is used dominantly for sensual expression and as a compositional element. He gained international fame for his religious paintings, incisive portraits, and poetic interpretations of mythological subjects, according to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Titian was born Tiziano Vecellio in a small town in the Dolomites, according to the London newspaper The Titian was born in Venice, in the National Gallery of Italy, and is believed to have arrived in Venice at the age of 10. He found early success with his work on the facade of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi on Venice’s Grand Canal, the museum said, adding that Titian became the principal court painter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. He died of the plague in 1576.

“The Rest on the Flight into Egypt” also attracted attention because of its provenance, not just its record price.

Although it is unclear who commissioned the painting, it is first documented as being part of the collection of a Venetian spice merchant in the early 17th century, according to Christie’s.

Over the next centuries the painting passed through many hands, including an English duke and Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, and was looted from Vienna by Napoleon’s troops, but returned to the city after its fall. It was finally acquired by John Alexander Thynne, 4th Marquess of Bath in 1878.

But the painting’s dramatic story continued to unravel. In 1995, it was stolen from Thynne’s home in Wiltshire, southwest England, and miraculously recovered in 2002 after a $127,000 reward was posted, Christie’s announced in April ahead of the sale. Charles Hill, a prominent art detective, found it in a bag without its frame at a London bus stop, it added.

“This image has captured the public imagination for more than half a millennium and will undoubtedly continue to do so,” the auction house’s Rock said in a statement after the sale.