THE auction was ordinary, one of the many fine-art sales so common in France. The painting, however—a portrait of a woman as St Catherine of Alexandria—was anything but. When he clapped eyes on it in December 2017, art dealer and historian Marco Voena knew it was special. ‘The auctioneers put it forward with an attribution to Artemisia Gentileschi [1593–1654], but it wasn’t a published painting.’ Nonetheless, he explains, ‘I had no doubt. This is an artist I know well, a period I know well—I had no doubt at all.’
He was not the only one. An American collector in particular had his eye on the canvas and a bidding war ensued, with Dr Voena’s partnership eventually securing Gentileschi’s for €1.85 million at the hammer, against an estimate of €300,000–€400,000. ‘It was one of the first times a woman artist smashed a million-plus
