A rediscovered Baroque painting by 17th-century Neapolitan artist Diana de Rosa, titled *Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist*, sold for £317,500 ($436,086) at Sotheby’s Old Masters and 19th Century Paintings sale in London on July 2, more than quadrupling its high estimate. The work, previously unknown to scholars, set a new auction record for the artist and was described by Sotheby’s specialist Elisabeth Lobkowicz as a powerful image comparable to Caravaggio’s treatment of the same subject.
This sale matters because it shines a spotlight on one of early modern Italy’s few professional women painters, whose reputation has long been overshadowed by male contemporaries like Caravaggio. De Rosa’s rediscovery and record-breaking auction result could spur further scholarly and market interest in her oeuvre, of which only about 28 works survive, and contribute to the broader re-evaluation of historically marginalized women artists.