NEW YORK, NY.- A photograph sent to Christie's online Request an Auction Estimate portal by an unsuspecting owner resulted in a major discovery: a previously unknown study by Michelangelo for perhaps his most famous work, the frescoes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Today, this newly discovered drawing sold for an extraordinary $27.2 million, nearly 20 times its low estimate and a record for Michelangelo at auction. The prior record was $24.3 million for another drawing, set at Christie's in Paris in 2022.

There was approximately 45 minutes of intense bidding at Christie's in Rockefeller Center for the drawing, the only unrecorded study for the Sistine ceiling ever to come to auction, and one of only about 10 Michelangelo drawings known to be in private hands.

Of the roughly 600 sheets by Michelangelo that survive today – only a fraction of the thousands of drawings he must have produced – this is one of just around 50 studies relating to the Sistine Chapel.

“In the 23 plus years I have been in the industry I have been privileged to see many wonderful Old Masters moments but today topped them all,” said Andrew Fletcher, Christie's Global Head of Old Masters, who placed the winning bid on behalf of his client. “This was an exceptional piece with a wonderful story. We had multiple bidders in the room, on the phone, and online because this was likely to be the only chance a collector might have to acquire a study for arguably the greatest work of art every made. I'm so proud of my team for recognizing this work for what it is, and for bringing it to this point.”

A Specialist in Christie's Old Master Drawings Department, Giada Damen, identified the powerful study in red chalk as an original drawing by Michelangelo, done in preparation for the right foot of the monumental figure of the Libyan Sibyl, at the far east end of the Sistine ceiling.

The Michelangelo drawing was part of Christie's Old Master and British Drawings sale, which included drawings by Rembrandt, Titian, and William Blake, among many others. The sale followed the strongest Old Master Paintings sale at Christie's New York in 10 years, held the day before and totaling over $54 million. The sale included a new world record for the most celebrated female artist of the 17 Century Artemisia Gentileschi for her Self Portrait as Saint Catherine, which achieved $5.7 million, and the sale of Canaletto's masterpiece Venice, the Bucintoro at the Molo on Ascension Day, for $30.54 million.