NEW YORK, Nov. 11 (UPI) -- The Metropolitan Museum confirmed Wednesday that it had shelled out multi-millions for a small "Madonna and Child" by Renaissance master Duccio di Buoninsegna.
Harold Holzer, a spokesman for the museum, would not discuss the price paid for the type sheet-size wood panel painting, created around 1300 and said to be in incredibly good condition. But informed sources said it was at least $45 million and perhaps as much as $50 million. It was purchased from the heirs of Adolphe Stoclet, a Belgian industrialist-collector.
The previous record price paid for a painting by the Met was more than $20 million in 1998 for Jasper Johns's "White Flag," painted in 1955.
Works by Duccio, the leading painter of the early Renaissance and father of Western art, are extremely rare and the Met previously did not own an example. Painted in tempera on a gold field, "Madonna and Child" shows distinct Byzantine influence in the stiffness of its style, offset by the warmth of affection displayed by the subjects.
Duccio's major masterpiece is the "Maesta" altarpiece in the cathedral museum in Siena. The only other Duccio in a New York museum is "The Temptation of Christ on the Mountain," a fragment of the Maesta altarpiece, in the Frick Collection.
The painting is expected to go on display in a few weeks, Holzer said.
