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Christie`s offers Raphael work for sale

Christie`s will offer for sale a drawing by Renaissance master Raphael.

London: Christie`s will offer for sale a drawing by Renaissance master Raphael which he used as a study for a figure in a Vatican fresco, and expects it to break the record for an old master drawing sold at auction.
"Head of a Muse" will go under the hammer at the London sale of old masters and 19th century art on December 8 and has been estimated at 12-16 million pounds ($20-26 million). The existing record for an old master drawing at auction stands at 8.1 million pounds, including buyer`s premium, for Michelangelo`s "The Risen Christ" in 2000 and for Leonardo da Vinci`s "Horse and Rider" in 2001. The Raphael drawing was a study for a figure in "Parnassus," one of a series of four frescoes in the Stanza della Segnatura in the Vatican commissioned by Pope Julius II and executed between 1508 and 1511. Christie`s said the series was "widely considered to be the artist`s greatest masterpiece." In 1508, Raphael was summoned to Rome and commissioned to paint frescoes at the same time that Michelangelo was painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The December 8 auction will also include Rembrandt`s "Portrait of a man, half-length, with his arms akimbo," estimated at up to 25 million pounds, and "Saint John the Evangelist" by Italian artist Domenico Zampieri, valued at 7-10 million pounds. "The auction in December will be a landmark sale for the art market," said Richard Knight, co-head of old masters at Christie`s. "The market for old masters has shown stability over the last year as international collectors continue to seize opportunities to acquire works which rarely appear on the market." Bureau Report