Cleveland Museum of Art to auction off old masters
- January 18, 2011 21:05
Beginning on Jan. 27, the Cleveland Museum of Art will offer 30 European old master paintings from its collection in a series of sales at Sotheby's in New York.
Mostly by minor masters, three-quarters of the paintings to be sold were gifts to the museum. The auction total is estimated at a range from $706,000 to $1,022,000.
"These are pictures that probably don't have a place in the Cleveland Museum of Art context, but could have a happy life elsewhere," said C. Griffith Mann, the museum's chief curator.
It is the museum's largest sell-off from its collection in more than a half-century, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
The museum, which is undergoing a $350 million expansion and renovation, will use earnings from the sale to buy more old master paintings for the collection.
![Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), After Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) (Italian [Venetian], c. 1488–1576), Rape of Europa, 1628–29. Oil on canvas, 71 7/8 x 79 3/8 in.](/images/c/e2/2e/Jan20_Rape_of_Europa100x100_c.jpg "Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1577–1640), After Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) (Italian [Venetian], c. 1488–1576), Rape of Europa, 1628–29. Oil on canvas, 71 7/8 x 79 3/8 in.")
