Titian Painting with Outrageous Backstory Sells for More than $22 Million at Christie’s

What comes next for a painting that launched a Renaissance master’s career, hung in a Habsburg palace, was stolen twice and recovered at a bus stop?
An auction record for the artist, of course.

Setting an auction record is probably the least surprising thing that happened to Titian’s painting The Rest on the Flight into Egypt in hundreds of years. So when the painting sold for £17.6 million ($22.1 million) as part of Christie’s Old Masters Part I auction in London on July 2, no one was startled during the auction house’s Classic Week London series.

If ever a painting deserved a bit of normalcy, it is Titian’s masterpiece.

Ensured to sell by a third-party guarantee, and with a presale estimate of £15 million to £25 million, or $19.1 million to $31.9 million, the painting was expected to set a new auction record for artwork by Titian. The previous record price was $16.9 million for A Sacra Conversazione: The Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria at Sotheby’s New York in 2011. Since The Rest on the Flight into Egypt sold for around $22.1 million, making it the top lot in the sale, it definitely met expectations. Christie’s UK chairman Orlando Rock called the sale ”a tribute to the impeccable provenance and quiet beauty of this sublime early masterpiece by Titian.”

The quality of Titian’s work, especially the naturalism of the scene and the compassionate depiction of its subjects, no doubt contributed to its high price. So did its significance in his career, as one of his earliest works was painted when he was a young man, possibly a teenager, in Venice. But the painting’s provenance is an undeniable part of its appeal. It belonged to the Habsburg family when they controlled the Holy Roman Empire and was looted by Napoleon’s troops during their occupation of Vienna in 1809. In 1878, it was sold to John Alexander Thyme, 4th Marquess of Bath—coincidentally, at a Christie’s auction—who kept it in Longleat House in Wiltshire, England. The painting made headlines in 1995 when it was stolen from the house and again in 2002 when it was found at a bus stop in London.

While The Rest on the Flight into Egypt may have had the best story of any lot at the Old Masters I sale, it wasn’t the only one to set a record. The Madonna of the Cherries sold for £10.66 million ($13.46 million) to the J. Paul Getty Museum. It is a record price for artist Quentin Metsys (also spelled Quinten Massys or Matsys), who lived in the Netherlands from 1466 to 1530. The entire sale brought in £43.59 million ($55.1 million).

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A painting with a fascinating and convoluted backstory, which showed the early promise of a Renaissance master and went on to nab the attention of everyone from emperors to thieves—and was once left at a bus stop for good measure—is expected to create even more intrigue at an upcoming auction at Christie’s in London.

The oil-on-canvas painting The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, created by Italian Renaissance master Titian in the early 1500s, leads the Old Masters Part I auction at Christie’s in London on July 2. It has a third-party guarantee, meaning it is guaranteed to sell. With a presale estimate of £15 million to £25 million, or $19.1 million to $31.9 million in U.S. currency, it is expected to set a new auction record for the artist.

Tiziano Vellecio, better known as Titian, showed artistic talent at an early age. He couldn’t have been much older than 10 when he traveled from his small home village of Pieve di Cadore to Venice, one of 16th-century Europe’s most important centers for art, culture, and commerce. Titian worked as an apprentice for the city’s leading painter, Giovanni Bellini.

While in Venice, at the beginning of his career, Titian painted The Rest on the Flight into Egypt. The painting shows a scene inspired by the Gospel of Matthew, with Mary and Joseph taking the baby Jesus to Egypt for his safety. Titian’s mastery of composition, color, and emotion is already visible. The influence of his surroundings can be seen as well. Dyes and pigments were among the many goods traded in Venice at the time, giving Titian access to the vivid shades of red, yellow, and blue in the figures’ clothing. The landscape and plant life resemble the scenery that Titian may have grown familiar with on his travels between his home and Venice.

The first known owner of the painting is Bartolomeo della Nave, a 17th-century Venetian spice merchant who collected paintings by major artists of the time. It was passed along to Sir James Hamilton, 3rd Marquess of Hamilton, and then to the Habsburgs, who displayed it at the Belvedere Palace in Vienna, which is a museum today. When Napoleon’s troops invaded and occupied the city in 1809, it was one of the paintings they looted. It was returned to Vienna in 1815.

In 1878, John Alexander Thyme, 4th Marquess of Bath, purchased The Rest on the Flight into Egypt at a Christie’s auction and displayed it in the State Drawing Room of Longleat House in Wiltshire, England. The painting stayed there until it was stolen in 1995. Charles Hill, a detective who had helped recover The Scream by Edvard Munch when it was stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo in 1994, led the investigation, and it was found in 2002 in a plastic bag at a bus stop in London. The painting was returned to Longleat House.

From its creation by a developing genius in one of Renaissance Europe’s greatest cities to its looting by Napoleon’s troops to its 1995 theft and remarkable recovery, The Rest on the Flight into Egypt has a long, fantastic history. If it sells for as much as expected, a record price will be only the latest event in its story.

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