NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby's annual Masters Week auctions in New York will be held from 27 - 30 January 2016. This exciting auction series features rare and important European paintings, drawings, and sculpture dating from the 14th through the 19th centuries, including Orazio Gentileschi’s Danaë, one of the most important Baroque masterpieces left in private hands, and two very special private collection sales: The Collection of A. Alfred Taubman and The Road to Rome. The Masters Week exhibitions open 22 January in Sotheby’s York Avenue galleries.

THE COLLECTION OF A. ALFRED TAUBMAN: OLD MASTERS
27 January 2016, 6:00 PM
Mr. Taubman’s remarkable collection of Old Masters includes rare pieces by two of the most iconic names in the history of art: Raphael, whose small Portrait of Valerio Belli, Bust Length, Facing Left (estimate: $2/3 million) — one of the last of his paintings remaining in private hands — is unique in the artist’s oeuvre as the only known profile bust representation, and Dürer, whose Christ Being Nailed To The Cross (estimate: $1/1.5 million) is related to his important series of drawings known as the Green Passion. Mr. Taubman’s collection also offers one of the strongest groups of Baroque works in private hands, led by Valentin de Boulogne’s The Crowning With Thorns (estimate: $1.5/2 million), as well as a number of classic 18th century British pictures, featuring Thomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Page (estimate: $3/4 million).

MASTER DRAWINGS
28 January 2016, 10:00 AM
Sotheby's 28 January sale of Master Drawings offers a strong selection of Italian drawings, led by Giandomenico Tiepolo’s The Country School (estimate: $600/800,000) from his famous series of scenes from the life of ‘Punchinello.’ The auction also features: newly-discovered drawings by 17th-century Dutch masters Jacob van Ruisdael and Dirck Helmbreeker; major British works by William Blake and J.M.W. Turner; a series of studies by Ingres; a portrait of Jean-Claude Gaspard de Sireul (estimate: $120/180,000) by François Boucherand; and Guercino’s masterly red-chalk Study of a Baby in a Basket (estimate: $60/80,000) — one of an outstanding group of four drawings by the artist.

THE ROAD TO ROME: A DISTINGUISHED ITALIAN PRIVATE COLLECTION, PART I
28 January 2016, 2:00 PM
The Road to Rome: A Distinguished Italian Private Collection, Part I comprises 35 view and portrait paintings that display a splendid overview of ‘Grand Tour’ taste. Throughout the 18th-century, young aristocrats partook in the Grand Tour, visiting Italian cities including Venice, Naples and Rome as the culmination of their academic studies. Inspired by their voyages, many of these travelers developed an interest in art, sitting for some of the great portrait painters of the time and immortalizing their adventures by purchasing breathtaking view paintings. Many of the great artistic talents of the time including Vanvitelli, Bellotto, the Van Lint family, Hackert and Caffi directly benefited from the patronage of these Grand Tourists, and paintings by them will be highlights of the auction.

MASTER PAINTINGS EVENING SALE
28 January 2016, 6:00 PM
Orazio Gentileschi’s superb Danaë (estimate: $25/35 million) will lead the Master Paintings Evening Sale on 28 January. This undisputed masterpiece is one of the most important Italian Baroque paintings to come to market since World War II. Sotheby’s invited Pamela Romanowsky, writer and director of The Adderall Diaries, to create a film inspired by the work resulting in a beautiful and modern interpretation. View her film here: Reimagining Gentileschi’s Danaë.

In addition, the evening sale offers paintings by an impressive list of iconic artists: Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Pieter Jansz. Saenredam, Sandro Botticelli, Eustache Le Sueur and Jacob Jordaens, whose St. Martin Healing a Possessed Man (estimate: $4/6 million) is one of the most exciting Flemish Baroque rediscoveries in decades. Further highlights include Canaletto’s An Interior View of The Henry VII Chapel, Westminster Abbey (estimate: $5/8 million), dating from the early 1750s, which depicts an remarkable view of Henry VII’s chapel in Westminster Abbey -- one of the artist’s rare works of an interior.

MASTER PAINTINGS & SCULPTURE DAY SALE
29 January 2016, 10:00 AM
The Day sale offers a wide range of European paintings and sculpture spanning six centuries. Highlights of the paintings include works by esteemed artists Hubert Robert, Hans Bol, Jan van Goyen, Lucas Cranach the Younger, Apollonio di Giovanni di Tommaso, Edwaert Collier, and Pietro Antonio Rotari. Sculpture and works of art from the Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque periods include an important pair of Venetian 15th century Istrian stone figures of Hope and Charity (estimate: $400/600,000) by Bartolomeo Bon; a beautifully-painted enamel plaque of The Annunciation (estimate: $50/80,000) by Royal enameller Leonard Limosin; and a pair of elegant Italian terracotta figures of Mercury and Minerva (estimate: $80/120,000), attributed to the late 17th century Florentine sculptor Giovanni Baratta.

MASTER PAINTINGS & 19TH CENTURY EUROPEAN ART
SESSION 1: 29 JAN 2016, 2:00 PM
SESSION 2: 30 JAN 2016, 11:00 AM
Part 1 of the sale includes works by European artists from the 15th through the 18th centuries, while Part 2 focuses on 19th century French, Italian, British, Dutch, German, Spanish and Scandinavian paintings, with a selection of Sporting pictures.