Rubens painting written off by New York museum to be auctioned for millions

WHEN New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art decided to sell off a portrait of Rubens’ only daughter, Clara Serena, they were convinced it was the work of a mere “follower” of the Old Master. So, in 2013, the painting was given the modest auction estimate of between £14,500 to £22,000.

But, a British collector who bought it for £457,500 appeared to know something the Met’s scholars did not.

Now the painting has been accepted as a Rubens original and is going up for auction at Christie’s in July with an estimate of between £3 million and

£5 million.

The family portrait by Sir Peter Paul Rubens was painted around 1623, about the time his daughter died from the plague, aged just 12.

In the Forties, Julius Held, the art historian, declared that it was not a Rubens original and so the painting fell out of favour. In 2013 it was sold off to pay for new acquisitions at the worldfamous American museum.

“There’s always a flicker of excitement when you see a picture is being sold by a major museum,” said Bendor Grosvenor, an art historian, collector and BBC presenter. “There’s no doubt in my mind that it’s a Rubens. The piece is painted clearly in his idiosyncratic style. It’s a beautiful depiction of his daughter.”

Mr Grosvenor believes a costly mistake was made by staff at the Met. The then buyer, who is anonymous but is believed to live in London, had experts clean off layers of dirt and green overpainting.

Henry Pettifer, head of Old Master paintings at Christie’s London, said that since its restoration the portrait has been shown as a Rubens original three times in public.