Rembrandt lion drawing raises $18m for big cat conservation at US auction | US news

A small chalk drawing of a lion by Rembrandt recently sold for a record $18 million in New York to benefit big cat conservation.

After being auctioned at Sotheby’s on Wednesday, Young Lion Resting broke the previous mark for the 17th-century Dutch painter’s most expensive drawing ever sold at auction: the Portrait of a Man with Arms on His Hips, worth $3.7 million.

The sellers of Young Lion Resting, Thomas Kaplan – the US billionaire philanthropist – and his partner Jon Ayers said they would dedicate profits from the auction to their major wild cat conservation charity, Panthera.

“Wildlife conservation is my only passion that surpasses Rembrandt – and I want to attract more people to this cause,” said Kaplan in a pre-auction statement, who, with his wife Daphne, began the year owning 17 paintings by the Baroque artist. “I can think of no more appropriate way to do this than to allow this beautiful drawing, which our family has loved for so many years and which has so much personal meaning to…Jon Ayers and I, to go to its next home…in service to Panthera.”

A separate statement from Ayers said “a work that so clearly captures the soul and spirit of lions… will now help protect their living counterparts.”

“I can think of no better legacy for this masterpiece than to serve the survival of the species that inspired it,” Ayers added.

As Sotheby’s says, the artist, whose full name was Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, was in his thirties and at the height of his creativity in Amsterdam when he drew Young Lion at Rest. The 4.5-inch-tall work depicts a resting lion – seen from three-quarter view – wearing a leash around its neck, “suggesting that it was taken from life,” the auction house said in a statement.

“Each feature renders the lion in exquisite detail, capturing its form but also its vitality, balance and power,” adds the Sotheby’s press release.

Being able to see a live lion would have been rare in Europe at the time, and Sotheby’s speculated that Rembrandt may have had the opportunity to do so at a fair.

We know that he only drew six lions. In addition to those auctioned by Kaplan and Ayers, two are in the British Museum in London and the other four in the Louvre in Paris, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam.

Kaplan co-founded Panthera with wildlife biologist Alan Rabinowitz, and Ayers is the organization’s president. Panthera is generally dedicated to securing the future of all 40 species of wild cats as well as protecting the landscapes they depend on.

Among other things, the group says it also works with local communities to end poaching and combat the illegal wildlife trade.