Sotheby’s will auction off Important Old Master paintings and sculptures in New York on January 27, featuring significant works by artists from across Europe.

The morning session of important Old Master paintings will be led by Titian’s monumental Sacra Conversazione, a rare work by the artist still in private hands (estimated at $15 to 20 million).

The afternoon session of Old Master paintings and sculptures will be led by An Italian marble relief portrait of Cosimo I de’ Medici by Baccio Bandinelli, executed just prior to the future Grand Duke’s rise to power in 1537. The sale will be on exhibition in Sotheby’s York Avenue galleries from January 22.

Works include Child With Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria by the Renaissance Master Titian. The work is one of only a handful of multi-figured compositions by the 16th century artist that remain in private hands, and is the most important to appear at auction since 1991. The painting was shown in public for the first time in more than 30 years at Sotheby’s New York this past October, and has since been on exhibition at Sotheby’s galleries in Paris, Amsterdam and London.

Painted circa 1560, Sacra Conversazione is a mature work executed by Titian at the height of his artistic abilities.While historically referred to as The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine, the present canvas’s subject lies within the more traditional representation of a sacra conversazione – a “holy conversation” between the Madonna and Child and saints. The main focus of the composition is the tender representation of the Madonna and Child as they engage St Catherine, and in particular the gesture between the female saint and the Christ Child.

Another highlight of the auction from an Italian artist will be the The Virgin And Child By A Window: Madonna Of The Cherries by Leonardo da Vinci’s most faithful and productive interpreter in Lombardy: Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, nicknamed Giampietrino (estimated at $700 to $900,000). (Source: Sotheby’s)