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Newly Discovered Michelangelo Study for the Sistine Chapel Sells for $27.2 Million

Red-chalk study for foot of the Libyan Sibyl is one of only about 10 Michelangelo drawings known to be in private hands. (Photo: Christie’s)

By Oliver Wang

February 10, 2026
5:03 am
Los Angeles, CA

A previously unknown drawing by Michelangelo—identified as a preparatory study for the Sistine Chapel ceiling—has sold for $27.2 million at Christie’s New York, establishing a new auction record for the artist. The discovery began unexpectedly, when an owner submitted a photograph to Christie’s online Request an Auction Estimate portal. Specialists quickly recognized the work as an original red chalk drawing by Michelangelo, executed as a study for the right foot of the Libyan Sibyl, one of the monumental figures painted on the east end of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Offered in Christie’s Old Master and British Drawings sale, the sheet—Study for a foot of the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Study of a leg with knee bent (verso)—ignited nearly 45 minutes of intense bidding in the saleroom at Rockefeller Center, as

The discovery began unexpectedly, when an owner submitted a photograph to Christie’s online Request an Auction Estimate portal. Specialists quickly recognized the work as an original red chalk drawing by Michelangelo, executed as a study for the right foot of the Libyan Sibyl, one of the monumental figures painted on the east end of the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

Offered in Christie’s Old Master and British Drawings sale, the sheet—Study for a foot of the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Study of a leg with knee bent (verso)—ignited nearly 45 minutes of intense bidding in the saleroom at Rockefeller Center, as well as by phone and online. The final price was nearly 20 times the low estimate, surpassing the previous Michelangelo auction record of $24.3 million, set at Christie’s Paris in 2022.

The drawing is exceptional not only for its quality but also for its rarity. Of the roughly 600 drawings by Michelangelo known to survive today—only a fraction of the thousands he is believed to have produced—just around 50 relate to the Sistine Chapel. This is the only unrecorded study for the ceiling ever to appear at auction and one of approximately ten Michelangelo drawings thought to remain in private hands.

The attribution was made by Giada Damen, a specialist in Christie’s Old Master Drawings Department, who identified the powerful red chalk study as Michelangelo’s hand. Her discovery underscores the continued potential for major finds, even in a field as rigorously studied as Renaissance drawing.

The Libyan Sibyl on the Sistine Chapel ceiling in the Vatican, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512.

The Michelangelo study was a highlight of a strong Old Master and British Drawings sale that also featured works by Rembrandt, Titian, and William Blake. The auction followed Christie’s most successful Old Master Paintings sale in New York in a decade, totaling more than $54 million. That sale set a new world record for Artemisia Gentileschi, whose Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine achieved $5.7 million, and saw Canaletto’s Venice, the Bucintoro at the Molo on Ascension Day sell for $30.54 million.

Together, the results underscore sustained global demand for museum-quality Old Master works—and the enduring power of Michelangelo’s genius, more than five centuries after it first took shape on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.