Sotheby’s to Offer $25m Gentileschi, Dealer Says It’s Worth $75m

Otto Naumann thinks Sotheby’s is underplaying the value of its just-announced Orazio Gentileschi painting that will feature in the auction house’s January Old Master sales in New York:

A rare 17th-century Italian painting that was recently on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art is heading to the auction block in January.

Measuring more than 7 feet across, Orazio Gentileschi’s “Danaë” portrays a mythological scene in which the god Jupiter enters the title character’s chamber in the form of a shower of gold.

The painting’s estimated value is $25 million to $35 million, according to Sotheby’s, which plans to offer the work at its Master Paintings evening sale in New York on Jan. 28, 2016.

“It’s the most important Italian baroque painting to come on the market since World War II,” said Otto Naumann, an old masters dealer in New York. “If I had it, I would have offered it at $75 million.”

Rare Baroque Picture To Be Offered for $25 Million (WSJ)