FINDERS KEEPERS

Centuries-Old Painting Found by Chance Sells for $2.7M

The rare work by Peter Paul Rubens had been missing for more than four centuries.

A rare painting by Peter Paul Rubens depicting the crucifixion of Jesus has sold for a whopping $2.7 million more than 400 years after it vanished. The artwork, titled Christ on the Cross, went under the hammer in Versailles, France, on Sunday after it was discovered in a private Paris home amid other, less valuable works by the Flemish artist. The painting from the early 1600s had disappeared shortly after it was finished and was believed to have wound up with a 19th-century painter before it was handed down again and again. It is said to be the only Rubens painting depicting “blood and water coming out of the side wound of Christ,” making it especially rare in the art world. “I immediately had a hunch about this painting, and I did everything I could to try to have it authenticated. And finally, we managed to have it authenticated by the Rubenianum, which is the Rubens committee in Antwerp,” said auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat.