Two Goya paintings sold at auction for more than $16 million

Two portraits by Spanish artist Francisco Goya were sold at an auction in New York for more than $16.4 million. This was reported on January 26 at site auction house Christie’s.

The canvases depict Maria Vicenta Barruso Valdez and her mother Leonora Antonia Valdez de Barruso. Both paintings were painted in 1805.

The women were not aristocrats, but were representatives of the bourgeoisie, according to the description of the lot. At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, the Spanish bourgeois were gaining strength, therefore they often ordered their portraits from artists to emphasize their position in society.

Both portraits were put up for sale in 1951 and have since been in a private collection.

The price of the lot broke the previous record of $ 7.4 million, which was paid by the J. Paul Getty Museum for Goya’s painting “Bullfight” in 1992. It is noted that, taking into account inflation, this amount today would be more than $15 million.

The largest collection of Goya’s works is kept in the Prado Museum in Madrid.

In May 2022, Andy Warhol’s portrait of Marilyn Monroe Shot Sage Blue Marilyn by American pop art classic sold for a record $195 million at Christie’s in New York.