Sotheby's is marking its first Old Masters Week in its New York Breuer Building HQ with the loan of a Renaissance masterpiece.
It is the first time Pietro Perugino’s painting of Christ as the Man of Sorrows has been seen in the city. Painted in 1495 for a chapel in Perugia, it is now part of the collection of the National Gallery of Umbria.
It will be shown alongside highlights from the planned sales until February 4, a move described as "profoundly meaningful" by Sotheby’s Chairman, Old Master Paintings, George Wachter.
He said: "Seeing the work enter into dialogue with artists who themselves fell under his spell gives the moment extraordinary resonance."
The building on Madison Avenue, which opened to the public in November, attracted more than 25,000 people to its first preview exhibitions with queues stretching around the block.