The French government has stepped in to stop the sale of a newly identified drawing by Hans Baldung, according to the Art Newspaper, throwing a last-minute wrench into what was shaping up to be a major Old Master auction in Paris.
The small portrait, dated to 1517 and attributed to the German Renaissance artist, was slated to hit the block at French auction house Beaussant Lefèvre, carrying an estimate of $1.74 million to $3.5 million. Two days before the auction, France’s culture ministry declared it a national treasure, triggering a 30-month export ban and effectively pulling it off the market.
That kind of intervention is rare but not unheard of in France, where the state can halt sales to give local institutions time to raise funds and keep important works in the country. In this case, the stakes are unusually high. Baldung drawings almost never come up for sale, and this one is being billed as the only surviving silverpoint portrait by the artist still in private hands.
The work itself is modest in size but sharp in execution: a bust-length portrait of a woman in a bonnet and high-necked dress, identified as Susanna Pfeffinger, the wife of a wealthy Strasbourg merchant. Baldung spent much of his career in Strasbourg, and the drawing has reportedly stayed in the same family for roughly 500 years.
It surfaced only recently, when auctioneer Arthur de Moras came across it while preparing a probate inventory. For years, the family assumed it might be by Hans Holbein. Specialists quickly thought otherwise. The attribution to Baldung has since been backed by several leading experts, including curators at the Albertina in Vienna and the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe in Germany.
That combination of rarity, condition, and fresh-to-market status helps explain the scramble. The last Baldung drawing to sell at auction was back in 2007, when one fetched more than $3.7 million at Christie’s.
For now, the sale is on ice. Beaussant Lefèvre has suspended the auction, and the owners will likely try to place the work privately with a French buyer. If no institution steps up within the 30-month window, the drawing could eventually return to the international market. Until then, it is staying put.
