Found in an apartment in Toulouse, this masterpiece was sold for a gold price: here is who the buyer is
By Guillaume Laurent
Published on
He had been found during an inventory by the auction house Artpaugee a Toulouse in July 2021, in the bedroom of the apartment of a local family, who could not have imagined owning such a valuable work… The discovery and the auction of the “Thuriferous Angel dressed in a yellow tunic”, masterpiece of Bernard Strigel (1460-1528), the artist who marked the German Renaissance, had created the event with enthusiasts and international collectors at the start of 2022. The auction house has just revealed the name of the buyer.
Sold for 3.47 million euros… at the Louvre Abu Dhabi
The work had been estimated by the Turquin cabinet at between 600,000 and 800,000 euros. On February 4, 2022, during a historic auction in Toulouse, it was finally sold for the trifle of €3,472,000. But at the time, the buyer had asked the auction house to remain anonymous until its restoration and exhibition.
And it is finally on display in the famous museum that got its hands on it. A happy buyer who is none other than… Louvre Abu Dhabi, announced Artpaugee this Wednesday, December 28, 2022, as specialists already suspected.
Restored and placed in a frame
Almost one year after its sale, this emblematic masterpiece of the transition from the late Gothic to the German Renaissance, is now on display by the Abu Dhabi Louvrewho had already kept his pendant since 2009. “The panel has been restored and placed in a frame as was the case for the first”, specifies the Toulouse auction house. After two centuries of separation, the two works are reunited.
These Thuriferous Angels were part of an altarpiece painted by the Grand Master for the Church of Our Lady in Memmingen (Germany) in 1520. The whole had been fragmented during the Reformation. To this painting also probably belong the four panels of the Sleeping Soldiers, of the same format, the same composition and the same essence, three of which are exhibited at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and one at the York Art Gallery. The central part of the altarpiece remains a mystery today…
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