An etching by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya — “The Betrothal – Capricho No. 57” — gifted to Nicolae Ceaușescu by the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I of Bourbon, around 1979–1980, will be put up for sale on December 5, with a starting price of 8,000 euros.

The work is part of the “Los Caprichos” series. Confiscated in December 1989 and placed under the administration of the National Museum of Art of Romania, the engraving was returned to Nicolae Ceaușescu’s heir, Zoia Ceaușescu, in 2012. It is classified under the Fond category of the National Mobile Cultural Heritage, by order of the Minister of Culture.

Starting in the 1970s, Goya’s engravings became a cultural instrument of Spanish diplomacy. Another Eastern European leader, Josip Broz Tito (former president of Yugoslavia), also received pieces from the Caprichos series (gifted by Enrique Galván, president of the Spanish Socialist Party), which are now part of the collection of the Museum of Yugoslavia in Belgrade. Nicolae Ceaușescu received his piece from King Juan Carlos I, in the context of the bilateral relations of the 1970s and ’80s.

The star of the Artmark event carries a starting price of 8,000 euros — notable, considering that similar Goya works have fetched tens of thousands of euros on the international art market. Engravings from the Caprichos series are held today in major museums worldwide, from Barcelona and Madrid to London, Berlin, and New York.

The same Artmark auction gives collectors access to exceptional works of Romanian art. Among the highlights: a classical nude by Nicolae Grigorescu — titled “At the Spring” and painted around the 1860s — with a starting price of 50,000 euros, and a 1927 painting by Nicolae Vermont, “The Young Enescu in Recital,” starting at only 5,000 euros.

The Grigorescu nude is a truly rare appearance, as the theme is exceptionally uncommon in the painter’s oeuvre — only a handful of such works exist, most of them studio studies made in France during his formative years. Why so few? Because Grigorescu, unlike many of his realist contemporaries, rarely treated the nude as an independent theme. Drawn instead to the feminine figure in everyday life, he integrated it into rural scenes or delicate portraits of women close to him. As Mariana Cîmpeanu, PhD in visual arts, explains on Artmark’s YouTube channel: “The nudes were created by Grigorescu during his studies in Paris. There are very few. In these paintings you can see his unique way of capturing feminine beauty. I believe these works hold the key to understanding Grigorescu — in the brushwork he used to render skin. Of course, anatomical study is important, and you can see it later in his Țărăncuțe (Peasant Girls) painted in Romania.”

Artmark’s Winter Auction features a total of 195 lots.

It is a carefully curated selection of rare and representative works signed by both old masters of Romanian art and acclaimed contemporary artists. Among the names: Nicolae Tonitza, Theodor Aman, Camil Ressu, Ștefan Luchian, Octav Băncilă, Samuel Mützner, Theodor Pallady, Ion Țuculescu, Corneliu Baba, Constantin Piliuță, Ștefan Câlția, Felix Aftene, Adrian Ghenie. All can be viewed at the Artmark Galleries at the Cesianu–Racoviță Palace in Bucharest, C.A. Rosetti Street no. 5, open daily (Monday to Sunday), from 10:00 to 20:00, with free entry. 

Written by Aura Marinescu |