Oil painting fetches record €116,000

A 17th century oil painting has sold for €116,000 (Lm50,435), a sum believed to be a record for a painting at a local auction.

The St John the Baptist in the Wilderness was painted in the 17th century by Jeronimo Jacinto de Espinosa and had been exhibited at St John's Co-cathedral during an exhibition on Caravaggio held between October and December. The painting was sold by Pierre Grech Pillow, auctioneer for Obelisk Auctions.

The painting formed part of a comprehensive auction of various fine continental and Maltese paintings, antique furniture, 18th-and 19th-century silver, antiquities, collectors' items and works of art, all from a private collection.