10/02/2026
When Giada Damen, an expert in Christie’s Old Master drawings department, received an unsolicited photograph via the auction house’s “Request an Auction Estimate” online service, she could never have imagined what had just rolled into her inbox.
The curious but unsuspecting owner had just submitted a major discovery: a previously unknown study by Michelangelo for his world-famous frescoes in the Sistine Chapel. Damen identified the work in red chalk as a preparation for the right foot of the monumental figure of the “Libyan Sibyl,” which is located at the far east end of the Sistine ceiling. According to Christie’s, Michelangelo created the study around 1511–12 just before he embarked on the second half of the massive mural.
Now, that work has set a new record as the most expensive drawing by the Renaissance artist, clobbering expectations when it sold for $27.2 million with premium on Thursday afternoon. Estimated at $1.5 to $2 million, a heated bidding war lasted for about 45 minutes, starting at $1.4 million and climbing steadily upwards.
Article by Eileen Kinsella
________
Pictured: Michelangelo Buonaratti, Red-chalk study for foot of the Libyan Sibyl. Image courtesy Christie’s.
