Old Masters Evening Sale: rare Altdorfer oil emerges after decades; expected to fetch up to £5 million

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 work, attributed to German Renaissance artist Albrecht Altdorfer, is particularly significant because it could become the third known oil landscape by the artist, whose surviving works of this kind are exceptionally rare.

According to The Guardian, 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. 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.