Subscriber content
A drawing by Hans Baldung Grien classified as a national treasure
Hans Baldung Grien (c. 1484/85–1545)
Portrait of Susanna Pfeffinger, in a three-quarter bust facing left, 1517
Silverpoint on prepared paper with bone powder - 15.7 x 10.4 cm
Beaussant-Lefèvre sale, Hôtel Drouot, 23 March 2026
Photo: Beaussant-Lefèvre
Portrait of Susanna Pfeffinger, in a three-quarter bust facing left, 1517
Silverpoint on prepared paper with bone powder - 15.7 x 10.4 cm
Beaussant-Lefèvre sale, Hôtel Drouot, 23 March 2026
Photo: Beaussant-Lefèvre
It is not every day that a drawing classified as a national treasure is offered for sale at Hôtel Drouot. Whatever the quality of the sheet, one must also question the interest of a museum - the Louvre in this instance - in acquiring a work that it could, at best, only very rarely exhibit to the public, even though it would have acquired it at a necessarily high price. Is it not better, for the French market, for a sheet to achieve a record sale, rather than for it to be disturbed by…