Discover Yahoo! With Your Friends

Explore news, videos, and much more based on what your friends are reading and watching. Publish your own activity and retain full control.

To get started, first

YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

    Raphael drawing fetches $47.8 million in auction

    Associated Press – Wed, Dec 5, 2012

    LONDON (AP) — One of the most significant drawings by Italian master Raphael in private hands sold for 29.7 million pounds ($47.8 million) in London Wednesday, smashing pre-sale estimates for the black chalk work.

    "Head of an Apostle" was expected to fetch between 10 million pounds and 15 million pounds, and Sotheby's auction house said the sale set a record for any work on paper sold at auction.

    Sotheby's said the winning bid was placed over the phone following an intense battle among four bidders.

    "Head of an Apostle" was created in preparation for Raphael's Biblical painting "The Transfiguration," which hangs in the Vatican Museum in Rome.

    "If you are lucky, at some point in your career a work like this comes along," said Gregory Rubinstein, worldwide head of Old Master drawings at Sotheby's.

    He called Raphael — who died in 1520 — a genius.

    The piece had been part of a collection at the Duke of Devonshire's Chatsworth House home in Derbyshire since the 1700s.

     

    30 comments

    • Robert M
      Robert M  •  3 days ago
      Pawn Stars would had given $200 for it, and that's only because its in a nice frame.
    • Judge Smails
      Judge Smails  •  2 days 12 hrs ago
      $47 million for a drawing by a turtle. I'm putting the dog to work when I get home.
    • Mike
      Mike  •  3 days ago
      The picture made it so much more real!
      • Carolyn
        Carolyn 2 days 12 hrs ago
        Made WHAT real ?
    • Steve
      Steve  •  2 days 4 hrs ago
      Word on the street is that Michelle Obama won the bid.

      Shhhh...keep that on the down low. That's the White House's "Milk Fund". It seems that the girls are Ninja Turtles fans.
    • michael
      michael  •  2 days 13 hrs ago
      You have got to be kidding. That is insane, paying that much for a drawing. Who ever bought that is nuts!!!!
    • Scott
      Scott  •  2 days 8 hrs ago
      Hopefully, the Lords can now uncover some of their windows....and pay their back taxes.
    • Charles
      Charles  •  2 days 7 hrs ago
      What dummys with money no sence pay that kind of money for a stupid drawing that money could help alot of people
    • Melissa
      Melissa  •  3 days ago
      What do I have to do to get this drawing above your mantle?
    • Dickie Cee
      Dickie Cee  •  2 days 7 hrs ago
      Supposedly Rafael made such passinate love to his mistress, he got fatigued, fell ill for 3 weeks or so then died at the age of 37!

      Mozart kicked the bucket almost the same age I think...
    • tom
      tom  •  2 days 17 hrs ago
      He was the most talented of the Ninja Turtles.
    • Gerard
      Gerard  •  3 days ago
      rare but over-priced, the Lords of the manor are laughing all the way to the bank
    • Universal Dreamer
      Universal Dreamer  •  2 days 2 hrs ago
      Wonder how much the artist got for it? My guess: $0.
    • Capone
      Capone  •  3 days ago
      absolutely amazing!
    • Sam
      Sam  •  3 days ago
      I was lucky enough to see a collection of these Raphael drawings in a museum about 20 years ago. Amazing. The man was brilliant.
    • James
      James  •  2 days 14 hrs ago
      I drawed a picture from 4th grade bidding starts at 300 million
    • TEN-OF-WANDS
      TEN-OF-WANDS  •  3 days ago
      FURTHER evidence of an unwholesome concentration of wealth in the global economy.
    • Ole Unca Bob
      Ole Unca Bob  •  3 days ago
      Keep the money moving. That's what makes the world go round. Maybe the seller will use some of the money to fix up the old place in Derbyshire and keep a large group of stone masons, craftsmen and cabinetmakers busy for a few years.
      • Michael P
        Michael P 2 days 23 hrs ago
        Good point. Too bad it's wasted on the people that are haters. Hey, it's his money, let him do with it what he wants. I bet that most of the people on here have more money than the poorest of the poor in alot of third world countries. I wonder if those in the third world are, at this very moment, bitchin' about the richy riches that are on their interwebs and living a decadent lifestyle.
    • bob
      bob  •  3 days ago
      Heck, I can draw better than that, and I'm a little cheaper.
      • Dan
        Dan 2 days 23 hrs ago
        But can you kiss the pope's #$%$?
        That would make your work valuable
    • OZMAN28
      OZMAN28  •  2 days 6 hrs ago
      At the end of the day its still just a piece of paper.
    • OZMAN28
      OZMAN28  •  2 days 6 hrs ago
      I didnt know the ninja turtle could draw
     Post a comment

    News for You

    • Python Challenge Offers Cash Prizes to Florida Snake Hunters
      Python Challenge Offers Cash Prizes to Florida Snake Hunters

      Call it the Python Challenge: That’s what wildlife officials have issued to hunters in an attempt to reduce the population of Burmese pythons, which have become an invasive species in South Florida wetlands. Jan. 12 kicks off a month of hunting giant snakes in Florida,...

    • Bus driver not guilty of manslaughter in NY crash
      Bus driver not guilty of manslaughter in NY crash

      A tour bus driver who prosecutors said was all but asleep at the wheel was acquitted Friday of manslaughter and negligent homicide in a crash last year that killed 15 gamblers on their way from a Connecticut ...

    • Florida Launches Giant Python Hunting Contest. Really.
      Florida Launches Giant Python Hunting Contest. Really.

      Florida Launches Giant Python Hunting Contest. Really.

    • John McAfee Wants to Come Home
      John McAfee Wants to Come Home

      Tired of blogging from jail, John McAfee would like nothing more than to pack his bags, ditch his young Belize girlfriend and return to the beautiful sandy, not behind bars, shores of Miami beach.

    • Mexico's 2013 budget predicts 3.5 percent growth

      Mexican Treasury Secretary Luis Videgaray estimates the country's economy will increase 3.5 percent next year, slightly less than the almost 4 percent growth in 2012. He expects inflation to run at 3 percent.Videgaray ...

    • Fla. officials urged to make budget website public

      A pair of open government and ethics advocacy groups on Friday urged Gov. Rick Scott and Florida legislative leaders to keep and make public a now-secure and largely unused website that gives details about ...

    • Italy PM Monti will resign as soon as budget passed - statement

      ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, whose government lost the support of the main center-right party this week, intends to resign after checking to see if parliament can pass next year's budget law, President Giorgio Napolitano's office said on Saturday. Monti said he does not now feel that he has the support of parliament after Silvio Berlusconi's center-right People of Freedom withdrew its support from his government this week and therefore intended to resign, the statement said. ...

    • $700,000 in Gold Dust Missing; Pfizer Asks Police for Help

      One of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies has lost something very valuable. Around $700,000 in gold dust is missing from the Pfizer research facility in Chesterfield, Mo. Police were called to help investigate where the missing dust might have gone, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. A employee inventory failed to produce the gold dust.

    Show More

    Follow Yahoo! News

    Loading...