Goya escapes from Spain and goes to auction at Christie's

A portrait painting by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, depicting Don Juan López de Robredo, embroiderer to King Carlos IV of Spain, is going to be auctioned at Christie's London.

Before the impossibility of the painting being acquired by the Museo del Prado or by the Patrimonio Nacional, the Spanish Ministry of Culture has authorized its exportation, a fact that has cause great controversy and has receive unfavorable opinions by the Spanish media.
According to official sources, the public institutions weren't capable of meeting the price asked by the owner of the painting, a private collector from Madrid.

Although not one of the most important paintings from the artist, it's a painting from one of the most important Spanish masters and a renowned artist worldwide.

The portrait of Don Juan López de Robredo, Embroiderer to King Carlos IV of Spain (El bordador Juan López de Robredo), an oil on canvas measuring 42⅝ x 32⅜ in. (108.3 x 82.3 cm) and with an estimated value of £4,000,000 – 6,000,000, will go on sale during the Old Master and British Paintings Evening Sale on 6 December 2011, at Christie's London.

Other 36 paintings, spanning near 500 years of European art history, will be offered up for auction during the same sale, including The Battle between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Brueghel II (1564/5-1637/8) (estimate: £3.5 million to £4.5 million); a full length Portrait of Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl of Chesterfield (1755-1815), by Thomas Gainsborough, R.A. (1727-1788) (estimate: £2.5 million to £3.5 million); Dutch men-o'-war and other shipping in a calm by Willem van de Velde II (1633-1707) (estimate: £1.5 million to £2.5 million); An old woman spinning in an interior by Nicolaes Maes (1632-1693), 1658 (estimate: £1 million to £1.5million) and An old man at a casement, 1646, by Govaert Flinck (1615-1660) (estimate £700,000 to £1,000,000).