Christie’s to Offer Canaletto Masterpiece in February Old Masters Sale

A Canaletto painting will lead a Christie’s Old Masters sale this February in New York, where the piece could continue the artist’s recent market momentum.

Titled Venice, the Bucintoro at the Molo on Ascension Day and finished ca. 1754, the monumental canvas was commissioned by the King family, later the Earls of Lovelace, and is the last known version of this celebrated subject painted by the artist. Christie’s expects the work to sell for more than $30 million.

The work last appeared at auction at Christie’s 20 years ago, during the landmark Champalimaud Collection sale, when it achieved a record price for the artist. It will be exhibited in New York (November 7–12), Hong Kong (November 20–21), and London (November 27–December 2) before returning to New York for a pre-sale exhibition from January 29 to February 3, 2026.

“This is among the finest Canaletto paintings to remain in private hands,” said Andrew Fletcher, Christie’s global head of the Old Masters department, said in a statement. “The artist’s ability to unite pageantry and precision is on full display here—capturing not only the spectacle of the Bucintoro ceremony but the rhythm and structure of Venice itself. It is a painting that defines why Canaletto continues to inspire collectors almost three centuries later.”

The offering follows a year of renewed interest in Old Masters among younger and crossover collectors. For a least a year auction houses and dealers have been increasingly successful in attracting clients from the modern and contemporary categories. Christie’s head of Old Masters in London, Clementine Sinclair, told ARTnews last year that 80 percent of bidders in its Old Masters sales were also active in 20th- and 21st-century categories—a sign that the traditional boundaries between collecting areas are fading.

Earlier this year, at a Christie’s Old Masters evening sale in London, Canaletto’s Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day (circa 1732) set a new auction record after it sold for $43.7 million with fees on a $27.5 million estimate.