£17.5m Nicholas Hilliard Portraits to be Sold from Waddesdon Manor
July 7 2025
Picture: Waddesdon Manor
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Arts Council Website has announced that two rare oil paintings by Nicholas Hilliard, depicting Queen Elizabeth I and the English Ambassador to France Sir Amias Paulet, are subject a private treaty sale for £17.5m (in other words, a private sale to a presumably non-UK buyer has been arranged). The sale, which will happen 'no sooner than the 4th of October 2025', has been organised by the auction house Sotheby's. The portraits, which are from the Rothschild Collection kept at Waddesdon Manor, were part of a special exhibition there in 2017 regarding their reattribution to Hilliard.
Earlier in May it was announced that a Guercino from the Rothschild collection was accepted by The National Gallery in lieu of £5.6m worth of tax.
More news as and when it appears.
Update - It transpires that the Hans Eworth portrait of the 4th Duke of Norfolk, featured on AHN earlier this year but ultimately did not appear in the Sotheby's July sale, is also a Rothschild painting as per the following article on the Waddesdon Manor website.
