Chalk artwork sold for record price at a New York Sotheby’s auction with proceeds going to the Panthera charity
A tiny chalk drawing of a lion by Rembrandt recently sold for the record-setting price of $18m in New York City to benefit the conservation of big cats.
After selling at a Sotheby’s auction Wednesday, Young Lion Resting shattered the previous mark for the most expensive drawing by the 17th-century Dutch painter ever auctioned: the $3.7m Portrait of a Man with Arms Akimbo.
Young Lion Resting’s sellers Thomas Kaplan – the billionaire US philanthropist – and his associate Jon Ayers said they were dedicating the proceeds generated by the auction to their prominent wildcat conservation charity, Panthera.
“Wildlife conservation is the one passion I have which surpasses Rembrandt – and I want to attract more people to that cause,” said a pre-auction statement from Kaplan, who along with his wife, Daphne, entered the year owning 17 paintings by the baroque artist. “I can think of no more fitting way to do so than to allow this magnificent drawing, which our family has loved for so many years, and which carries so much personal meaning to … Jon Ayers and me, to go on to its next home … in services to Panthera.”
