{"id":57327,"date":"2026-02-11T10:00:39","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/?p=57327"},"modified":"2026-02-10T13:23:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:23:06","slug":"best-foot-forward-michelangelo-sketch-sells-for-record-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/2026\/02\/best-foot-forward-michelangelo-sketch-sells-for-record-price\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Foot Forward: Michelangelo Sketch Sells for Record Price"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_57328\" style=\"width: 241px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/study-right-foot-libyan-sibyl-116148693.webp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-57328\" class=\"wp-image-57328 \" src=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/study-right-foot-libyan-sibyl-116148693-257x300.webp\" alt=\"A red chalk drawing of an arched right foot.\" width=\"231\" height=\"270\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/study-right-foot-libyan-sibyl-116148693-257x300.webp 257w, https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/study-right-foot-libyan-sibyl-116148693-768x896.webp 768w, https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/study-right-foot-libyan-sibyl-116148693.webp 831w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 231px) 100vw, 231px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-57328\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Study for a foot of the Libyan Sibyl<\/em> by Michelangelo<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">This week saw a series of Old Master sales in New York at Christie\u2019s and Sotheby\u2019s. While several great pieces crossed the block at both auction houses, it is without doubt that the highlight of the week turned out to be\u2026 a foot? Not just any foot, but an original chalk drawing by Michelangelo made as a preparatory drawing for the Sistine Chapel ceiling.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The red chalk drawing was part of Christie\u2019s Old Master &amp; British Drawings sale on the afternoon of Thursday, February 5th. It had only recently been rediscovered after being kept away in the same private collection, that of an aristocratic Swiss family, for over two centuries. Though just a foot, the sketch is actually a preparatory drawing Michelangelo made while working on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Part of the ceiling features twelve figures on the spandrels, the triangular spaces between the chapel windows where the ceiling begins to arch upward. These figures are seven prophets of the Old Testament and five of the ancient Sybils, the classical Greco-Roman oracles associated with specific holy sites. The sibyls on the ceiling included <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/8\/8f\/CumaeanSibylByMichelangelo.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">the Cumaean Sibyl<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/3\/3b\/Michelangelo_Delphic_Sybil_cropped.jpg\/960px-Michelangelo_Delphic_Sybil_cropped.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">the Delphic Sibyl<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/6\/65\/Erythraean.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">the Erythraean Sibyl<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/61RfuYPXqLL._AC_UF894,1000_QL80_.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">the Persian Sibyl<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, and, most importantly in this case, <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">the Libyan Sibyl<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The drawing offered at Christie\u2019s is a study for the Libyan Sibyl\u2019s right foot, which, in the completed fresco, is shown arched as the figure turns in her seat, trying to reach a large codex behind her. While Michelangelo was obsessively fixated on mastering his ability to capture the human form, I understand why the foot may have been a point of focus for him. The foot is notoriously difficult to draw. Even great masters like Sandro Botticelli struggled to render his subjects\u2019 feet, <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/64.media.tumblr.com\/7aaa10d2374f961ff4b1bfd05b7c334e\/60abcfe975603547-d5\/s500x750\/19a64b4c227c97792a4c8721794472c733f30a53.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">as seen in several of his paintings<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">. So depicting the feet accurately, and in a somewhat unusual pose no less, was likely something Michelangelo cared about very much.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_57329\" style=\"width: 220px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sibila_Libica-scaled.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-57329\" class=\"wp-image-57329\" src=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sibila_Libica-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"A fresco of a seated woman in robes reaching for a book behind her.\" width=\"210\" height=\"315\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sibila_Libica-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sibila_Libica-684x1024.jpg 684w, https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sibila_Libica-768x1150.jpg 768w, https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sibila_Libica-1025x1536.jpg 1025w, https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sibila_Libica-1367x2048.jpg 1367w, https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Sibila_Libica-scaled.jpg 1709w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 210px) 100vw, 210px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-57329\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Libyan Sibyl in the Sistine Chapel<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Michelangelo made hundreds of sketches and drawings during the four years he worked on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. However, most of these drawings are now considered lost. Those that survive now mainly belong in museum collections. Because so few works by the artist remain in private hands, the drawing\u2019s rarity alone made this an incredibly exciting auction moment.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">While Christie\u2019s expected the drawing to sell for between $1.5 and $2 million, things went a little out of hand. There were several interested parties that afternoon, driving the final price ever higher. At one point, I left my desk and came back to find the current bid was quadruple the high estimate. And the bidding was not over yet. After what must have been over twenty-five minutes of bidding, auctioneer Georgina Hilton brought down the hammer at a mind-blowing $23.1 million (or $27.2 million w\/p). It is now the most expensive work by Michelangelo ever sold at auction, and the third most valuable Old Masters work on paper ever sold at auction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The sale as a whole, consisting of one hundred thirty-one lots, was only expected to bring in no more than $5.46 million. But even if the Michelangelo drawing only reached its high estimate of $2 million, the sale would have still done rather well. Some other highlights included the William Blake drawing <\/span><em><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/resources.heni.com\/c529d54e-d3e2-4367-b261-df8589061b8a.jpg?width=2048\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Grave: The Reunion of the Soul and the Body<\/span><\/a><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> (which sold for $750K against an estimate range of $800K to $1.2 million) and an eighteenth-century ink drawing <\/span><em><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christies.com\/img\/LotImages\/2026\/NYR\/2026_NYR_24142_0036_000(giovanni_battista_piranesi_study_of_four_figures105055).jpg?mode=max\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Study of four figures<\/span><\/a><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> by Giovanni Battista Piranesi (which sold for $220K against a $120K high estimate).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Of the one hundred thirty-one lots, twenty-nine sold within their estimates, giving Christie\u2019s a 22% accuracy rate. An additional thirty-seven lots (28%) sold below, while an impressive forty-three lots (33%) sold above. With twenty-two lots unsold, Christie\u2019s achieved an 83% sell-through rate on Thursday afternoon. The entire sale brought in $25.7 million (or $30.5 million w\/p), with the Michelangelo accounting for 89.9% of the total.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week saw a series of Old Master sales in New York at Christie\u2019s and Sotheby\u2019s. While several great pieces crossed the block at both auction houses, it is without doubt that the highlight of the week turned out to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/2026\/02\/best-foot-forward-michelangelo-sketch-sells-for-record-price\/?contemporary=N\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":57328,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[850,207,134,20,416,15,243,1363,58,9,620],"class_list":["post-57327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rehs-galleries","tag-16th-century-italian-art","tag-auction-news","tag-auction-records","tag-auction-results","tag-christies","tag-comments-on-the-art-market","tag-drawing","tag-michelangelo","tag-old-masters","tag-rehs-galleries-news","tag-renaissance"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.8 (Yoast SEO v27.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Best Foot Forward: Michelangelo Sketch Sells for Record Price - Rehs Galleries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An original Michelangelo preparatory drawing for the Sistine Chapel ceiling crossed the block at Christie&#039;s on February 5th.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/2026\/02\/best-foot-forward-michelangelo-sketch-sells-for-record-price\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Best Foot Forward: Michelangelo Sketch Sells for Record Price\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An original Michelangelo preparatory drawing for the Sistine Chapel ceiling crossed the block at Christie&#039;s on February 5th.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/2026\/02\/best-foot-forward-michelangelo-sketch-sells-for-record-price\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rehs Galleries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RehsGalleriesInc\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-11T15:00:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/rehs.com\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/study-right-foot-libyan-sibyl-116148693.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"831\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"970\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nathan Scheer\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nathan Scheer\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/best-foot-forward-michelangelo-sketch-sells-for-record-price\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/best-foot-forward-michelangelo-sketch-sells-for-record-price\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nathan Scheer\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/1d33fd182b28afdad8fc3548ffe6bdc4\"},\"headline\":\"Best Foot Forward: Michelangelo Sketch Sells for Record Price\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-11T15:00:39+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/best-foot-forward-michelangelo-sketch-sells-for-record-price\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":687,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/best-foot-forward-michelangelo-sketch-sells-for-record-price\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/rehs.com\\\/eng\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/02\\\/study-right-foot-libyan-sibyl-116148693.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"16th Century Italian Art\",\"Auction News\",\"Auction Records\",\"Auction Results\",\"christie's\",\"Comments on the Art Market\",\"drawing\",\"Michelangelo\",\"Old Masters\",\"Rehs Galleries - Art World News\",\"Renaissance\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Rehs 19th &amp; 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