Peter Paul Rubens was a prolific painter, but it is not everyday that experts discover another masterpiece by the 17th-century Flemish master. Yet a magnificent, dramatized crucifixion scene made in around 1614–15 was found among the possessions of a late Parisian homeowner. It went under the hammer at a local auction house on November 30, where it raked in €2.3 million ($2.7 million), exceeding its presale estimate.

“It was painted by Rubens at the height of his talent,” auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat told AFP ahead of the sale. “It’s the very beginning of Baroque painting,” he said, noting also the work’s significance as “a true profession of faith and a favorite subject for Rubens, a Protestant to converted to Catholicism.”

Osenat has described his shock at coming across the painting during a routine visit to a mansion in Paris late last year. He was tasked with appraising the inventory for auction when the Baroque marvel stopped him in his tracks. His instincts told him he was looking at “an extremely rare and incredible discovery that will define my career as an auctioneer,” said Osenat. Best of all, the 400-year-old work has remained in great condition.

To back this hunch, Osenat consulted the experts. The decisive authority on Rubens is German art historian Nils Büttner, who chairs the Centrum Rubenianum in Antwerp and subjected the painting to a x-ray imaging and pigment analysis. He confirmed that the painting is indeed by the hand of the Flemish Baroque legend and that it had previously only been known to art historians from engravings. The work will be included in the next Addenda and Corrigenda of Rubens’s catalogue raisonné.

In a paper shared with Artnet News, Büttner said it was “striking” that a painting of this calibre could have remained unnoticed for such a long time. He noted that the artwork at one time belonged to the 19th-century academic painter William Bouguereau, but if he knew its significance, he did not reveal it.

The scholar admired how “Christ is shown isolated, standing out brightly against an ominous, dark sky,” noting also how “in a painfully realistic manner, Christ’s upper body arches forward, its weight shown by the strain on the arms” stretched overhead. “Behind the green and overgrown rocky backdrop of Golgotha is a view of Jerusalem illuminated, but apparently under a rainstorm,” Büttner added. This kind of accuracy was very typical of Rubens.

Over the past year, religious paintings by Rubens at auction have tended to meet or surpass expectations, selling for between $1 million and $5 million, according to the Artnet Price Database. This latest painting to hit the auction block carried an estimate between €1million–€2 million ($1.1 million–$2.3 million), per the Guardian.

The Centrum Rubenianum often weighs in on the authenticity of paintings attributed to Rubens, and has made its stance clear on one canvas that has triggered ongoing debate. Samson and Delilah at the National Gallery in London has long had its doubters, including one artist Euphrosyne Doxiadis who recently wrote a book on the subject, but Büttner has shut down speculation, consistently backing the Rubens attribution.

This story was originally published on September 11, 2025. It was updated on December 1, 2025, at 9.21 a.m. ET, with the auction result.