Raphael drawing expected to make £15m at auction

One of the greatest drawings by Renaissance master Raphael still in private hands was unveiled in London today before an auction where it is expected to make up to £15 million.

It is being sold at Sotheby’s next Wednesday along with two valuable illuminated manuscripts by the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire to secure the future of their Chatsworth estate in Derbyshire.

Created in black chalk around 1519-1520, Head of an Apostle was a working drawing for Raphael’s Transfiguration, which now hangs in the Vatican Museum.

Research by Sotheby’s expert Gregory Rubinstein suggests the drawing was unknowingly acquired by the 2nd Duke of Devonshire three centuries ago when he bought a group of Old Master prints and found it in the back of the frames.

The Devonshires will still own 14 Raphaels, in the third largest collection of the artist’s work in the UK behind those of the British Museum and the Ashmolean. Members of the public can view Head of an Apostle at Sotheby’s from tomorrow until the sale.