Perugino Masterpiece Lands in NYC for Sotheby’s Old Masters Week

After transforming its new Breuer headquarters into a cultural landmark—museum-quality works for sale alongside quirky loan exhibits, Sotheby’s is now positioning itself as an active partner with international museums and a platform for promoting national cultural heritage. In an unprecedented partnership, the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria is lending the auction house a masterpiece by Perugino, which will soon be on view in New York during its upcoming Old Masters series. This project is underwritten by the Italian fashion house Brunello Cucinelli, which combines luxury marketing and cultural support, as both the brand and the auction house turn to heritage and historically proven works of art to endure symbolic money.

I Mass from Pietro Perugino Decemviri Altarpiecethe Renaissance treasure of 1495 from the Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, will be shown together with other treasures presented at the sale, including the most rare ones. Ecce Homo by Antonello da Messina and a fascinating painting of a resting lion that was abandoned by American real estate investor, collector and philanthropist Thomas S. Kaplan to fund his wildlife conservation organization, Panthera. A loan of Mass it marks one of the few times that a precious work has left the Priory Chapel in Perugia’s Palazzo dei Priori—today part of a museum—to which it was originally commissioned.

According to the director of the museum, Costantino D’Orazio, the goal is to make the American audience aware of the center’s collection and, more generally, of the remarkable contribution of Umbria to the history and culture of Italy. He explained the Mass of Decemviri Altarpiece in a statement that it is one of the most profound and iconic works in the collection, and one of “the purest expressions of Perugino’s art at the height of his career.” For more than five hundred years, it has been sitting in the church where it was born, inseparable from the history of the city and its character. “Letting it go outside Perugia for the first time is an act of great responsibility, but also a crime.”

Notably, this program also marks the launch of Friends of Umbria, a project conceived by the National Museums of Umbria and art collector Dr. Mitchell Levine to engage potential US donors in supporting the assets and activities of a national network of regional museums. Starting in 2026, US citizens will be able to make donations through an agreement between the National Museums of Umbria and the Myriad Foundation, an organization that works worldwide to raise funds for the preservation and protection of artistic and cultural heritage.

George Wachter, chairman of the Old Master Paintings Collection, described the collaboration as a shared commitment to scholarship, trust and care. Seeing the work enter into conversation with the artists who fall under the spell of Perugino, Wachter added, gives a certain feeling to the sale, highlighting the lines of historical influence and exchange in all the works offered this season. “This painting has great historical and spiritual significance, and its presence during Old Masters week invites a broader conversation about scholarship, discovery, and genealogy—about the centuries-old masterpieces being offered at auction this week,” Wachter told the Observer.

Although the sale does not include other artists from the Umbrian school of the period, Sotheby’s Old Masters Week auction will bring to the rostrum works by Perugino’s contemporaries from all over Italy, providing a broad overview of late 15th-century painting. Highlights include beautiful and emotional Saint Ursula by Venetian painter Alvise Vivarini (est. $400,000-600,000); a rare and vivid example of Florentine artist Biagio d’Antonio’s skill as a portrait painter ($800,000-1,200,000); and, of course, a double-sided, pocket-sized punching panel Ecce Homo; Saint Jerome in Penitence by Hypo. The auction also has a judge Madonna and child are enthroned attributed to the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio (est. $700,000-1,000,000).

Raphael’s master and mentor, Perugino introduced a calmer visual register and spatial mastery that moved away from the narrative density and figurative weight characteristic of late quattrocento painting. His figures, well-constructed but never epic, eschew emotional drama in favor of inner peace and tranquil nature—an approach that will profoundly shape the lyrical clarity and grace later perfected by Raphael, who will be celebrated with the opening of an unprecedented survey at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the end of March.

Pietro Perugino’s importance Mass

Painted at the height of Perugino’s career, i Mass he captures Christ in his miraculous but fragile moment, emerging from the tomb against a completely dark background—a striking and highly unusual choice for a Renaissance depiction of the Resurrection, which is often heavily illuminated. According to the Bible, the resurrection takes place at night, and here Perugino sets aside the convention of images in favor of a structure that adheres to the written text. The result is an image of religious isolation and concentration, which heightens the viewer’s union with Christ and reinforces the painting’s liturgical charge.

Behind the painting is a complex history of loss and displacement. In 1797, for the first time in its existence, the central panel of the altar was removed by Napoleon’s ambassadors and taken to Paris. The upper part was left behind, where it came to stand as a powerful symbol of what had been taken. The two objects were briefly reunited in 2019 and 2020 under a special agreement with the Vatican Museums, where the central panel finally found a permanent home.

After being presented for the first time at Suthu’s headquarters in Breuer, where it will be on view until February 4, Mass will go to Midtown Manhattan on temporary loan to the Morgan Library, where it will be shown in conversation with Giovanni Bellini. The Pietà.

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