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20 March 2021 Record auction in France for a rare drawing by Gian Lorenzo Bernini that sold for over 1.9 million euros.
It is a sanguine (56 x 42.5 cm) datable between 1630 and 1640.
The work is distinguished by its extreme rarity as it joins the very limited corpus of early works.
The work, whose pre-sale estimate was between 30,000 and 50,000 euros, depicts a seated man, surrounded by plant decorations, and was sold by the Actéon auction house in Compiègne, in the north of the country.
"The world record for a design by Bernini, set in 2014 with 139,000 euros - comments Dominique Le Coent, commissioner of the sale - has been pulverized".
The identity of the buyer has not been revealed, but "it is probably an Anglo-Saxon purchase" and the work "will leave France".
There are very few known drawings by Bernini: in addition to this, art historians believe that there are seven others, "all preserved in museums, including one in the Uffizi in Florence".
Numerous international collectors participated in the auction, transmitted via the web, also by telephone.
Bernini's record work was "discovered" on the occasion of a succession.
The design was initially attributed to the French sculptor Pierre Puget, active in the same years as Bernini.
In 2019 the auction house Actéon reached another record for a work by another great Italian master, Cimabue: his "Cristo deriso" was sold for over 24 million.