Vienna Dorotheum

World record for two Renaissance paintings

Masterpieces by the famous Renaissance painter Perugino under the hammer: "Christ" and "Mary" (1490)(Bild: DOROTHEUM)

Two paintings by Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci, known as il Perugino (ca. 1450-1523), achieved a combined price of 842,800 euros at an auction at Dorotheum Vienna on Tuesday. 

Even art experts accustomed to top prices were amazed: two early masterpieces by the Italian Pietro Vannucci, called Perugino (1445/48 to 1523), Raphael's teacher, changed hands at the Dorotheum in Vienna by telephone bidding for a world record price of 842,800 euros.

The buyer of the painting, created around 1490 by the most influential painter of his time, who achieved world renown with his fresco "Christ Giving Peter the Keys" (1481) in the Sistine Chapel in Rome, is anonymous. Sensational prices were also achieved for a "Madonna and Child" by the Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi (€585,000), who has been rediscovered in recent years, and a red chalk drawing by Rubens from a private collection in Vienna (€156,000).