«I LIKE MONEY ON THE WALL»

The most important German old master painting to come on the market since the second world war was sold privately on 12 July by Donatus Prince of Hesse to the industrialist Reinhold Würth, 76, for a sum around €50m to €60m. The panel painting, the Darmstadt Madonna by Holbein the Younger, which has often been described as the northern equivalent of Raphael's Sistine Madonna, could have been worth €120m on the international market, but it is on the list compiled by the State of Hesse of unexportable treasures, so any buyer, while he need not necessarily be a German, must keep the work within Germany.