仏住宅の台所で見つかったチマブーエの絵画、２９億円で落札　中世絵画では最高額

【サンリスＡＦＰ＝時事】フランスの住宅の台所で見つかったイタリアのルネサンス初期のフィレンツェ派絵画の祖チマブーエによる作品「あざ笑われるキリスト」が27日、競売にかけられ、落札予想価格の約5倍の2400万ユーロ（約29億円）で落札された。（写真はフィレンツェ派絵画の祖チマブーエが描いた「あざ笑われるキリスト」。仏パリで）
　競売を主催したパリ郊外の町サンリスのオークションハウス、アクテオンは落札者の身元を明らかにしていない。
　チマブーエ（本名チェンニ・ディ・ペーポ、１３０２年ごろ没）は先駆的な初期の画家であり、その作品が競売にかけられたことは過去数十年間なかった。
　諸経費を含めた落札価格は、落札予想価格４００万～６００万ユーロ（約５億～７億円）を大幅に上回った。アクテオンによると、今回の落札価格は中世絵画としては最高額、中世および古典派巨匠絵画としては８番目に高い価格となる。
　これまでの最高価格は、２０１７年の競売でイタリア・ルネサンスの巨匠レオナルド・ダビンチのものとされる絵画「サルバトール・ムンディ（救世主）」が落札された時の４億５０００万ドル（約４９０億円）だった。
　チマブーエの作品の衝撃的な発見を先月発表した専門家らによると、この絵画はフランス北部の町、コンピエーニュに住む女性が所有していたもので、この女性宅の台所と居間の間の壁に掛けられていた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2019/10/28-10:04）

A rare masterpiece by Italian early Renaissance master Cimabue that was discovered in a French kitchen was sold on Sunday for 24 million euros ($26.6 million), about five times the initial estimate.
The Acteon auction house did not identify the winning bidder for the painting, Christ Mocked, at the sale in Senlis, outside Paris.
The selling price, which included costs, smashed the initial estimate of between four million and six million euros.
Bidding began at three million euros, with only three of the eight bidders present at the auction.
It is the first time in decades that a painting by Cimabue, a pioneering primitive painter who lived from 1272-1302 and is also known as Cenni di Pepo, has gone under the hammer.
Acteon said the figure was the highest ever reached for a mediaeval painting and the eighth-highest ever reached for a mediaeval or old master painting.
The highest figure ever reached for a painting was the $450 million paid for the Salvator Mundi attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and sold at auction in 2017.
Experts in September announced the sensational discovery of the painting by Cimabue which was owned by a woman in the northern French town of Compiegne, who had it hanging between her kitchen and her sitting room.
She believed it was merely an old religious icon when she took it to the auctioneers to be valued.
- Rare example of a Cimabue -
The tiny unsigned work, measuring just 26 by 20 centimetres (10 by eight inches), was found to be in excellent condition, though covered in grime from having been displayed right above a cooking hotplate.
Art experts at Turquin in Paris used infrared reflectology to confirm that the piece is part of a larger diptych from 1280, when Cimabue painted eight scenes of the passion and crucifixion of Christ. Each of the two panels in the diptych had four scenes.
Only two other elements of the diptych are known to exist: The Flagellation of Christ displayed at the Frick in New York, and The Virgin and Child with Two Angels at the National Gallery in London.
Cimabue is renowned for his mosaics, frescoes and altarpieces.
Historians say only about a dozen works on wood -- all unsigned -- are thought to have been made by the Italian artist.
His more natural and nuanced depictions marked a turning point for Italian painters still influenced by highly stylised Byzantine art.
Art historians consider him a trailblazer for the creative Renaissance that would flourish under greats like Giotto, one of Cimabue's pupils.