For Juliusz Windorbski, head of the Polish auction house DESA Unicum, it is a dream come true: "This extraordinary work of art, one of the most valuable in the world, has found its way to us," he enthuses.

It is about a painting by Peter Paul Rubens.

Calm and collected, her hands crossed in front of her body, is the pose of the woman in the picture, clad in black velvet with gold trimmings.

But an almost provocative liveliness speaks from her large, shining eyes, which contrasts with the static triangular composition of the half-portrait.

The skin of the sitter shimmers white like the pearls on the ear and in the updo, light silk fabric that flashes out of the slit sleeves and a transparent cloth in the wide neckline underline the rosy pallor of the dark-haired woman.

Ursula Scheer

Editor in the Feuilleton.

  • Follow I follow

But who is the beauty captured in oil on canvas, probably painted in Antwerp between 1620 and 1625 with the participation of Rubens' workshop?

Experts suspect it could be the artist and diplomat's first wife, Isabella Brant.

But other theories are also circulating: for example, that the painting could portray a member of the Duarte family of jewellers, who lived in Rubens' neighborhood, or a lady from the Spanish royal court.

Numerous illustrious owners

From a British private collection, the 98 by 73.8 centimeter work will be auctioned in Warsaw on March 17.

Shortly after its creation, it made its way to England and through the hands of numerous illustrious owners.

Among the earliest are George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, and the Baroque painter Sir Peter Lely.

In 1876 the work was sold to British nobility at Christie, Manson & Woods in London as "Portrait of His Wife, by Rubens".

At the beginning of the 20th century it adorned the collection of the diamond dealer Jules Porgès in Paris, after which it possibly made a detour to Copenhagen and ended up in 1950 in the art trade in Paris again and in the possession of the Egyptian prince Mohammed Ali Ibrahim.

The painting was last seen in public in 1965 in Brussels in an exhibition at the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, where it was also identified as "Portrait d'Isabelle Brandt".

The estimate in Warsaw is now 18 to 24 million zloty, the equivalent of 3.8 to 5.1 million euros.

Other lots in the March sale at DESA Unicum include works by Italian painter Giovanni Battista Lampi and paintings by 19th and 20th century Polish masters, including Jacek Malczewski, Leon Wyczolkowski and Aleksander Gierymski.