A Renaissance painting dating to the 15th century which was found gathering dust underneath a garage workbench has fetched £685,000 at an auction in Oxfordshire.
The piece, showing the Madonna and Child, is thought to have been painted by the Renaissance artist Pietro Vannucci, known as Perugino, who was born in the mid-15th century.
A 15-minute bidding war took place online, over the phone and in the saleroom of JS Fine Arts in Banbury. “When the hammer fell, there was a hush, then applause,” Joe Smith, principal auctioneer, said. “It was one of those moments every auctioneer dreams of. We knew it was special, but the response was beyond anything we expected.”
The painting had generated so much interest from international collectors when it was put on the auction house’s website in September that its phone lines were permanently engaged, according to the Antiques Trade Gazette.
A local person had bought it several years earlier but did not know its true value. The sale smashed the auctioneers’ previous record of £265,000 for a painting by Eric Ravilious. Perugino was one of the most celebrated and influential artists of the Italian Renaissance. Born in Umbria, he was considered on a par with Leonardo da Vinci and was deemed the “best painter in Italy” in 1502. Along with Sandro Botticelli, he was commissioned to paint the walls of the Sistine Chapel in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, a generation before Michelangelo.
According to the Victoria & Albert Museum, Michelangelo called the artist “clumsy”, and his pupil Raphael went on to outshine him. But Perugino’s works became a favourite of artists and museums in the 19th century.
The V&A bought his Nativity fresco in 1862. The piece had been painted for a village church in Fontignano, near Perugia, but was left unfinished in 1523 when Perugino died of the plague.
Smith said that the response from the public had surpassed anything he had seen before. “We knew it was special, but the response was beyond anything we expected. The longer you looked, the more you realised the quality of the workmanship and the elegance of the Renaissance detailing,” he added.
The new owner of the painting is an unnamed private collector. It is thought that they believe it is by the hand of Perugino but are carrying out more research into its origins.
Last year a pair of oil on wood paintings showing Mary and Jesus crowned with thorns by Perugino fetched €739,000 at Dorotheum’s Old Masters sale, a record price for the artist.