Christie’s broke the auction record today for Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1654), selling a rare, early self-portrait in which she’s dressed as Saint Catherine of Alexandria for about $5.69 million. The work hammered at the auction house’s Rockefeller Center headquarters as part of its main January Old Master sale, trouncing its estimate of $2.5 million to $3.5 million.
The previous auction high for a Gentileschi was $5.25 million (€4.7 million), which was set in 2019 at Artcurial in Paris for Lucrèce, above a high estimate of €800,000. Adjusted for inflation, that would come to roughly $6.6 million, almost $1 million above the new result.
