Engraving created by Francisco Goya and gifted to Romania’s Nicolae Ceaușescu to be auctioned

Auction house Artmark announced a major auction for this winter featuring an engraving created by Francisco Goya, the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Romania's late communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu received this gift from King Juan Carlos I as a gesture of diplomacy.

The engraving entitled “The Engagement – Capricho no. 57,” is part of the “Los Caprichos” (“The Caprices”) series. It was a personal gift received by communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu from the King of Spain, Juan Carlos I of Bourbon, around the years 1979–80.

Following the 1989 revolution, the engraving was transferred to the administration of the National Museum of Art of Romania. It was returned to the heiress, Zoia Ceaușescu, in 2012.

Another Eastern European leader, Josip Broz Tito, the former president of Yugoslavia, also received copies of the “Caprices” series from Enrique Galvan, president of the Spanish Socialist Party. The artworks are now held at the Museum of Yugoslavia in Belgrade.

The engraving auctioned by Artmark has a starting price of EUR 8,000. According to the auction house, “similar Goya works have been sold for tens of thousands of euros.” The auction is set to take place on Tuesday, December 16.

In the same Artmark auction, collectors also have access to works of Romanian art, such as a classic nude signed by Nicolae Grigorescu titled “At the Spring” and painted around the 1860s, with a starting price of EUR 50,000, as well as a painting signed by Nicolae Vermont, “Young Enescu in Recital” (1927), with a starting price of EUR 5,000.

In total, Artmark’s winter auction features 195 pieces by Nicolae Tonitza, Theodor Aman, Camil Ressu, Ștefan Luchian, Octav Băncilă, Samuel Mützner, Theodor Pallady, Ion Țuculescu, Corneliu Baba, Constantin Piliuță, Ștefan Câlția, Felix Aftene, and Adrian Ghenie.

(Photo source: press release)