$4.5m restitution windfall
June 7 2012
Video: Christie's
A Christ Carrying the Cross by Girolamo Romanino, which was dramatically seized from a museum wall just last year, has been sold for $4.5m by the heirs of the family who were forced to sell it during the Nazi era. The picture (featured above in a superalitive-laden video by Christie's) was the top lot in Christie's New York Old Master sale last night, which made in total $12.5m. Other noteworthy lots included a Portrait of Francois Langlois by the Studio of Van Dyck, which made $338,500 against an estimate of $80,000-$120,000, and a 'newly discovered Rubens' of Frederico Gonzaga, which failed to sell (for the second time) at $500,000-700,000.
