Christie's recorded some storming bids during the first week of in London with stunning prices for a recto-verso drawing by Michelangelo and a late 15th Century Augsburg reliquary. Michelangelo's pencil and red and white chalk study of the Resurrection of Christ, a preparatory sketch for a marble statue, which the artist was commissioned to make for the Santa Maria Sopra Minerva Church in Rome in 1514, fetched the incredible bid of £ 8,14 (US £ 12,185 million), a world record price for a drawing.
It was acquired by German dealer Kathrin Bellinger, most probably for the Getty Museum.
Such drawing had remained in the collection of Sir Brinsley Ford during half a century. In the category of drawings, the previous record stood for a study of a hand and face of an apostle by Raphael for his painting titled the «Transfiguration», which sold for £ 5,28 million at Christie's in December 1996.
Two other important Michelangelo works, «The Rest during the flight into Egypt» and «Christ and the Samaritan woman» sold at £ 4,18 million and $ 7,48 million respectively at Christie's in July 1993 and in January 1998.
The silver and silver-gilt San Sebastian reliquary, made in Augsburg in 1497 after a preparatory drawing by Holbein the Elder, fetched £ 1,9 million ($ 2,89 million).
It went to an institution.
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