Rubens painting from Alfred Beit collection sold for £1.3m

An Old Master painting by Rubens from the Beit art collection was sold for £1.3 million (about €1.5 million) at Christie’s auction house in London tonight.

Venus Supplicating Jupiter by Sir Peter Paul Rubens, the 17th century Flemish painter, was acquired by an unnamed bidder.

The painting was sold by the Alfred Beit Foundation, the charitable trust that runs Russborough House in Co Wicklow. The house and art collection were left in trust to the people of Ireland by the late Sir Alfred and Lady Beit.

The unframed oil painting, on an oak panel, measuring approximately 20 inches by 14 inches, depicts a scene from Virgil’s epic poem The Aeneid and shows Venus (the Roman goddess of love) pleading with Jupiter (the Roman king of the gods).

Christie’s, which is celebrating its 250th year in the auctioneering business, said the painting had previously been sold by the company “in these rooms by James Christie” over 220 years ago when, in 1795, it made 25 guineas.

‘Masterful delicacy’

The painting eventually ended up in the London art dealer Colnaghi’s, where Sir Alfred Beit acquired it, in 1947, for an unknown sum. Christie’s said Venus Supplicating Jupiter demonstrated the artist’s “masterful delicacy of touch and fluency in execution”.

The pre-auction estimate was £1.2 million-£1.8 million. The actual hammer price was £1.1 million hammer - just below the estimate - but when the buyer’s premium was added, the price paid by the successful bidder was £1.3 million.

Sir Alfred Beit was an English aristocrat who moved to Ireland in the 1950s when he bought Russborough House.

He owned one of the world’s most valuable private art collections, which he moved to Ireland.

He and Lady Beit had donated much valuable art to the Irish State before they died and left the remainder of their collection - and the house - in trust for the people of Ireland.

Since 2006, the Alfred Beit Foundation has been selling art and antiques from the collection. The foundation said it needs to create a €15 million endowment fund to pay for the ongoing upkeep and conservation of the stately home, located near Blessington.

Art ‘gone forever’

One Dublin art auctioneer Ian Whyte described the sale of the Beit paintings as “a shame” and said the foundation “should sell the house and keep the art in galleries around Ireland. The house will always be here, whoever owns it, whereas the art has gone forever.”

The foundation had planned to auction a second painting by Rubens entitled Head of a Bearded Man, but withdrew it from auction following a public outcry last year.

It was subsequently sold to telecoms billionaire Denis O’Brien for donation to the National Gallery of Ireland under a tax-break scheme sanctioned by the Revenue Commissioners, which allows donors to get 80 per of the price written off their tax liabilities.

Mr O’Brien is believed to have paid in excess of €2 million.

Earlier at tonight’s auction, another painting by Rubens - a biblical scene entitled Lot and his Daughters - sold after protracted and competitive bidding, for £44.8 million.

Christie’s described it as “one of the most important paintings by the artist to have remained in private hands”.

This was the second-highest price ever paid for an Old Master painting at auction, the record also being held by Rubens, whose The Massacre of the Innocents sold for £49.5 million in 2002.

The Alfred Beit Foundation also sold two paintings of Venice by Italian artist Francesco Guardi at tonight’s auction, which made a combined total of £329,000 (about €383,000) - which was below expectations.