A small Renaissance painting that remained in a private Swiss collection for nearly seven decades is set to make its way into the international art market, with an estimated value of up to £5 million. The Art Newspaper and Sotheby’s, the painting dates to around 1520 and will be offered at Sotheby’s Old Masters Evening Sale in London on December 9, 2026, according to The Guardian. It carries an estimate of £3 million to £5 million and is being presented as a previously unknown work that has emerged from a Swiss private collection. Measuring just 23.4 by 19.8 centimetres, the painting depicts a densely wooded landscape, with a rainbow appearing behind the trees, a distant rocky outcrop and a sky filled with heavy clouds.
Because it could become the third known oil landscape by the artist, whose surviving works of this kind are exceptionally rare, the work, attributed to German Renaissance artist Albrecht Altdorfer, is particularly significant. Despite its modest dimensions, the artwork is considered an important addition to the known body of work of the Northern Renaissance artist.
The last time a work by the artist entered the market was in 1980, when the National Gallery acquired Christ Taking Leave of His Mother, another painting dating to around 1520, for a reported £2.45 million. Because altdorfer paintings rarely become available to collectors, the discovery is also significant. Until this painting came to light, only two comparable oil landscapes by the artist were widely recognised. One, Landscape With a Footbridge, is part of London’s National Gallery collection, while the other, Landscape of the Danube near Regensburg, is housed at Munich’s Alte Pinakothek. The newly identified painting would expand that small group to three. The acquisition was considered one of the most expensive art purchases of its time.