A Canaletto painting will lead Christie’s Old Masters sale in New York this February, a work that could continue the artist’s recent market momentum.
title Venice, Bucintoro on Ascension Day in Moro and complete approx. Commissioned by the King’s family (later the Earls of Lovelace) in 1754, this massive canvas is the last known version of this famous subject painted by the artist. Christie’s expects the work to sell for more than $30 million.
The work last appeared at Christie’s 20 years ago at the landmark Champalimaud Collection sale, where it set an auction record for the artist. It will be shown 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 one of the finest Canaletto paintings in a private collection,” Andrew Fletcher, global head of the Old Masters department at Christie’s, said in a statement. “The artist’s ability to combine magnificence with precision is on full display here – capturing not only the grandeur of the Bucintoro ceremony but also the rhythm and structure of Venice itself. This painting explains why Canaletto continues to inspire collectors nearly three centuries later.”
This year, young collectors and cross-border collectors have shown renewed interest in Old Master works. For at least a year now, auction houses and dealers have been increasingly successful in attracting clients in the modern and contemporary categories. Clementine Sinclair, head of Christie’s London Old Masters auction house, said art news Last year, 80% of bidders at Old Masters auctions were also active in the 20th and 21st century categories, suggesting that traditional boundaries between collecting fields are disappearing.
Canaletto’s work was featured in Christie’s Old Masters Evening Sale in London earlier this year Venice, Bucintoro returns on Ascension Day (c. 1732) set a new auction record when it sold for $43.7 million against an estimated cost of $27.5 million.
