El Greco's The Entombment of Christ realised $6m at Christie's New York on April 14.
It was the star lot of a sale of old master paintings.
![]() El Greco painted The Entombment of Christ during the 1570s |
The exact date of the painting is unknown, but it's believed to have been executed sometime around the 1570s.
One of the figures in the work has been identified as the painter Titian (who died in 1576), leading some experts to believe that it was painted as a tribute.
El Greco is one of the most distinctive artists of the renaissance era. His strangely elongated figures and unique approach to colour inspired modernists like Picasso.
His record remains £9.2m ($13.2m), set for St Dominic in Prayer at Sotheby's in 2013.
An altarpiece by Bernardo Daddi was another star lot, realising $3.8m.
Titled The Madonna and Child Enthrone with Saints, it's a riot of colour that is among the finest work in Daddi's oeuvre.
Christie's describe it as "one of the finest and most important Trecento [14th century Italian] pictures to come to auction in the last decade."
Daddi lived and worked in Florence during the first half of the 14th century and was considered one of the best painters of his generation.
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