Turner’s Rome Painting Set for December Sotheby’s Auction

J.M.W. Turner’s 1836 painting Rome, from Mount Aventine is scheduled to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in London on December 9, with the auction house estimating it at 50 million. The work is being shown publicly in Rome ahead of the sale, and is also scheduled for exhibition at Sotheby’s London galleries in October. The estimate is not a sale result, and reports differ over what the painting fetched at its previous auction in 2014. The painting was unveiled at Palazzo Rondinini in Rome on September 29 and was expected to remain on display there through October 1. It depicts the city from the Aventine Hill, overlooking the Tiber River. Sotheby’s said the work is among the significant Turner paintings still in private hands. Sotheby’s has also scheduled a free public display at its Bond Street galleries from October 9 through October 15. The London exhibition will give visitors an opportunity to see the work before the December auction, which is part of the auction house’s Old Master Evening Sale. The auction estimate is 50 million, but reports have given differing currency conversions for that figure.