Updated on: December 1, 2025 / CBS/AP
A long-lost painting by Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens, missing for more than four centuries, fetched $2.7 million at an auction in Versailles on Sunday after being uncovered in a private Paris townhouse. The canvas depicts the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and has now been authenticated as an original by leading Rubens experts.
The work had been part of a French collection and long assumed to come from one of Rubens’s many workshops; until recently it was rarely valued above roughly $11,500. Auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat said he immediately suspected it might be an original when it appeared for sale and pushed for scientific testing and archival research. The Rubenianum, the Rubens research committee in Antwerp, ultimately confirmed the attribution.
German art historian Nils Büttner, who has published widely on Rubens, led the authentication after tracing the painting’s provenance and conducting technical analysis including X-ray imaging and pigment testing. Microscopic examination of the paint layers revealed not only the expected white, black and red pigments for flesh tones but also the blue and green pigments Rubens is known to use in skin modeling, findings experts say support the attribution.
Büttner noted the work is unusual in Rubens’s output. While Rubens painted several crucifixion scenes, he seldom represented Christ as a dead body on the cross. “This is the one and only painting showing blood and water coming out of the side wound of Christ, and this is something that Rubens only painted once,” he said.
Art expert Eric Turquin told the sale room the painting largely vanished from view in the early 1600s, resurfaced in the 19th century in the possession of French academic painter William Bouguereau, and then remained in his family until its recent discovery. The panel, measuring about 42 by 29 inches, was likely created for a private collector rather than a church commission.
The sale comes amid a string of high-profile auction results in recent weeks, including a previously unknown Renoir that sold for $2.08 million in Paris, a Frida Kahlo self-portrait that brought $54.66 million in New York, and a Gustav Klimt canvas that reached $236.4 million. Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.