Christie’s Scores Big With Michelangelo’s Tiny Foot
3 min read · 11 Feb 2026
A recently attributed study by Michelangelo, Study for foot of the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Study of a leg with knee bent (verso), sold for $27.2m. Image courtesy of Christie's.
Rarely has an online request for an estimate resulted in a sale that breaks an auction record for a great artist. But that is what happened when an unsuspecting owner submitted an image to Christie’s of a small work on paper.
Newly attributed to Michelangelo, the sketch of a foot on one side and a knee on the other sparked a bidding war last week in its Old Masters sale in New York, eventually selling for $27.2m with fees.
The record-breaking study for a detail in the Sistine Chapel frescoes helped the auction house bring in a total of $96m with fees over its four fine-art sales held on February 4-5.
Also known as the Classic winter sales, they scored an A+ on the HENI Auction Index, a significant improvement on the average C+ achieved in comparable sales in February 2025.
Christie's winter sales, led by Old Masters, jumped from a C+ to an A+ on the HENI Auction Index.
As well as Michelangelo, the pioneering female artist Artemisia Gentileschi saw her auction record broken. Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria (undated) sold for $5.69m with fees, more than twice the low estimate in the same sale.
The more than ten metrics used to assess the sales’ performance include total sales revenue, which jumped to double the typical achieved in its winter classic week at Christie’s over the past two decades, despite the number of lots traded being close to average.
Other metrics are the percentages of lots that hammered above their low and high pre-sale estimates. Both were some 10 percentage points higher than in previous comparable sales.
Another positive metric, the average hammer to mid-estimate ratio, jumped to 1.6, a third above average.
Also, the percentages of lots bought-in and withdrawn were only a bit below average.
While Old Master works dominated proceedings, the sales included more modern pieces. William Blake’s drawing, The Grave: The Reunion of the Soul and the Body, sold for nearly $1m with fees. A distant second to Michelangelo in the same sale, the Blake sold for only $52,500 above its last sale price at auction two decades ago.
Sales revenue jumped to double the typical achieved in a winter classic week over past 20 years despite the number of lots traded being close to average.
66% of lots hammered above their low estimates, and 41% went passed their high pre-sale estimates, both some 10 percentage points higher than in previous comparable sales.
The average hammer to mid-estimate ratio jumped to 1.6, a third above average.
The percentages of lots bought-in and withdrawn were only a bit below average.
Methodology: for how the HENI Auction Index classifies sales, see here
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