On this date in 1982 Samuel Morses'(yes the same man who invented the telegraph) painting "Gallery of the Louvre" sold for a record $3,250,000 - a then-record for the sale of a painting by an American artist. Morse (1791-1872) spent time in Europe honing his craft and in 1831 he began this monumental canvas depicting a grand room in Paris's Louvre Museum filled with famous masterpieces. He later finished the piece back in the United States. It sold for $1500.00 far short of his asking price of $2500.
Peter Paul Rubens' (1577-1640) painting "The Massacre of the Innocents" also sold on this date in 2002 for $76.2 million to Kenneth Thomson, Lord Thomson at a Sotheby Auction. Rubens painted this first version between 1611-1612. He painted a second version toward the end of his life 1636-1638. It depicts a story of the same name from the Gospel of Matthew.
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