How does a tiny scrap of paper with a simple shape scribbled on it sell for over $200,000?

When it belongs to the Italian Renaissance Master, Michelangelo, the sky is the limit.

Michelangelo’s sketch of a marble block reads “simile.”
Photos courtesy of Christie’s.

A sketch by Michelangelo, one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance, perhaps of all time, recently sold for $201,600. It was offered by Christie’s New York in its A Park Avenue Collection auction on April 17 with a presale estimate of $6,000 – $8,000. In this case, the lot selling at over 30 times its estimate is remarkable, not because it sold for so much, but because its estimate was so low. On rare occasions when Michelangelo’s drawings come to auction, they sell for extremely high prices; the auction record for Michelangelo’s works is over $21 million for a sketch, believed to be his first nude, sold at Christie’s in Paris in 2022.

One look at the sketch that sold on April 17 shows why its estimate was relatively low: it’s not a study for one of Michelangelo’s great works, displaying his skill at depicting human forms. Instead, it is a diagram of a rectangular block of marble etched ‘simile’ mounted on a bifolium inscribed by Cosimo Buonarroti and by John Bowring, which states, “The enclosed writing and outline of Michael Angelo was given on this day by his descendant Cosimo Buonarroti to John Bowring.”  Michelangelo is known to have made sheets full of drawings like these. They are sketches of marble blocks he needed for his sculptures and architectural designs, providing instructions for quarrying and transportation. Because this one is marked “Simile” (“similar”), experts believe it was drawn on a sheet with a similar block with its dimensions labeled.

Michelangelo’s block sketch is attached to a handwritten note
from Cosimo Buonarroti to John Bowring. Photos courtesy of Christie’s.

Cosimo was known to gift small fragments of paper with Michelangelo’s sketches. These were often authenticated by inscriptions of friendship or esteem. Like this sketch, many featured block designs. Ultimately, they were either auctioned off or found their way into various foreign collections.

Any drawing by Michelangelo is rare; he famously destroyed most of his sketches before his death. According to his contemporary and biographer Giorgio Vasari, an artist, he didn’t want anyone to see the processes behind his work, only his perfected finished products. He may also have been afraid others would try to steal his designs. Today, however, his drawings are valued for their rarity and for the historical information they provide. The sale of the simple sketch of a marble block on a two-inch square sheet for over $200,000 proves that even the most mundane inscription belonging to Michelangelo is a work of art.

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