AFTER a three-way bidding battle lasting 14 minutes, Lot and his Daughtersby Sir Peter Paul Rubens sold for £40m at Christie’s on July 8.
It is the second-highest price for an Old Master at auction, behind the £45m bid by Lord Thomson of Fleet for Rubens’ The Massacre of the Innocents at Sotheby’s in July 2002.
Lot and his Daughters was a picture of equally large scale at 6ft 2in x 7ft 5in (1.9 x 2.25m), on an Old Testament theme of vice and virtue from c.1613-14.