$3-Million Leonardo Work Acquired by Getty Museum

The J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu has purchased four drawings, including one by Leonardo da Vinci for $3.63 million, from Sotheby’s art auction house in New York, it was reported Tuesday.

The Leonardo work--a pen and brown ink series of sketches entitled “Child With Lamb”--is understood to be one of only two of the artist’s drawings still in private hands, according to John L. Marion, chairman and president of Sotheby’s in North America.

Citing long-standing museum policy, Lori Starr, public information director at the Getty, confirmed the sale Tuesday, but declined to discuss price. “We don’t discuss our acquisitions,” she said.

United Press International reported that the drawing fetched $3.63 million in Monday night’s auction.

The Getty also purchased a drawing by Agostino Carracci entitled “A Sheet of Studies,” including “Shepherds for an Adoration” (circa 1598-1600); one by Antonio Canal, known as Canaletto, entitled “Warwick Castle: the East Front From the Courtyard” (around 1748), and one by Eugene Delacroix (around 1855-1858) entitled “The Education of Achilles.”

No sale prices were revealed on the works.

The drawings are part of a collection of 46 art works by the masters sold by John Ryan Gaines, a Kentucky thoroughbred horse breeder and heir to a dog-food fortune, for $21 million to the London-based Sotheby’s.

“Child With Lamb” was actually sold to Adrian Ward-Jackson, a London dealer who was apparently bidding for the museum, but Getty spokeswoman Starr declined to comment.

The Leonardo drawing shows three sketches of the composition on one side of the paper and the head of an old man and studies of machinery on the reverse side, together with an annotation in the artist’s mirror writing. A pre-sale value of at least $3 million was placed upon the drawing by Sotheby experts.

It was not immediately known when the latest Getty acquisitions will go on display.

Altogether, the Gaines sale, which also brought world auction records for drawings by Rembrandt, Degas and Picasso, realized $21.9 million--or $6 million more than the pre-sale evaluation.

After the auction, Gaines joked: “I have bare walls now. Do you know where I (can) get some nice wallpaper?”

Budget for Purchases

According to some estimates, the heavily-endowed Getty museum has an annual acquisitions budget of $80 million. The museum is far and away the largest of seven programs of the Getty Trust.

Under the federal tax code, the trust is required to spend 4.25% of the average market value of its $2.8 billion endowment--or $119 million--on the trust’s programs three out of every four years.