A previously unknown Renaissance portrait attributed to Hans Baldung Grien, executed in silverpoint in 1517 and depicting Susanna Pfeffinger, is expected to sell for up to $3.5 million at a Paris auction on March 23. The drawing, which measures just four by six inches, has remained in the Pfeffinger family for 500 years and was only recently discovered by Old Master drawings expert Patrick de Bayser. It is being offered by French auction house Beaussant Lefèvre and Associés and Paris gallery Cabinet de Bayser at Hôtel Drouot.
This discovery matters because Baldung, a protégé of Albrecht Dürer and a key figure of the Northern Renaissance, has very few works remaining in private hands—only a handful of his roughly 250 known drawings are outside museum collections. The drawing's impeccable provenance, scholarly verification via the artist's monogram, and its status as an intact fragment of art history make it one of the most significant Old Master finds to reach the market in years, with the potential to set a new auction record for the artist.