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JMW Turner's "Rome, From Mount Aventine," described as his great love letter to Rome, has returned briefly to the city after nearly two centuries before heading to London for an auction expected to fetch £50 million. The painting will be on display at Palazzo Rondinini in Rome until Thursday and is set to break its previous record sale price of £30.3 million from 2014. Julian Gascoigne, a specialist at Sotheby’s London, highlights the work's exceptional condition, noting its original canvas and frame have never been relined or restored, preserving Turner’s unique artistic techniques.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-02,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
Story summary
A JMW Turner painting titled "Rome from Mount Aventine," described as his “great love letter” to the city, briefly returned to Rome after nearly 200 years before heading to auctions in Hong Kong and New York. The masterpiece is set to be auctioned by Sotheby’s in London on December 9th, where it could fetch up to £50m. Originally bought for £30.3m in 2014, this unlined painting still retains its original canvas and frame with visible marks from Turner's palette knife and brushes as well as fingerprints, making it a unique specimen of his work. The piece is on display at Palazzo Rondinini until Thursday before continuing to other cities globally.
Written for “Turner Rome Painting Exhibition” on 2026-10-05,
grounded in this article and the 1 other(s) covering the same event.
A JMW Turner painting of Rome that has been described as his “great love letter” to the city and has fleetingly returned there after almost 200 years is expected to set a new record when it goes up for sale in December.
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it → describe → December
One of the few works by Turner that remains in private ownership, Rome, From Mount Aventine will be on display at Palazzo Rondinini in central Rome from Tuesday to Thursday.
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that → remain → Thursday
The painting will then be shown in Hong Kong and New York before being transported back to London where it is expected to fetch £50m when auctioned by Sotheby’s on 9 December.
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it → show → December
The masterpiece was last bought in 2014 when a private collector paid £30.3m, making it the most expensive painting by the artist ever sold to date.
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it → buy → date
The golden-hued work, which depicts Rome’s Tiber River as seen from the Aventine Hill, is still on its original canvas and in its original frame.
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which → depict → frame
Furthermore, it has never been relined or restored, with marks made by Turner’s palette knife and brushes still visible, as well as his fingerprints from when he would have picked the canvas up to move it around his studio.
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he → reline → studio
“Because it’s unlined, the surface of the picture is extraordinarily well preserved,” Julian Gascoigne, a senior specialist at Sotheby’s London, told reporters in Rome.
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Gascoigne → ’ → Rome
“You can see all the delicate glazes of translucent paint that he’s built up over successive painting sessions that give the picture this extraordinary sense of light and depth and glow.
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that → see → light
You can see the teeth of the brush and the scrape of the palette knife in a way that is not really seen in almost any other work by the artist.
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that → see → artist
The painting has exchanged hands only twice since it was commissioned by Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar, an amateur British artist who accompanied Turner on his sketching tours, in the late 1820s.
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who → exchange → 1820s
Turner began the work in Rome and completed it in London, where it was displayed for the first time at the Royal Academy to mixed reviews in 1836.
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it → begin → 1836
The painting remained in Munro’s estate until 1878, when it was bought by Archibald Primrose, the 5th Earl of Rosebery and a prominent 19th-century British prime minister, as a wedding gift for his bride, Hannah de Rothschild.
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it → remain → bride
Turner first visited Rome in 1819 and then again in the late 1820s, when he was part of a thriving community of artists, sculptors, writers and poets based in the area of the Spanish Steps.
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he → visit → Steps
Turner, who died in 1851, produced several paintings of the city.
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who → die → city
“However, this is the only painting by the artist of Rome as it looked during his time,” Gascoigne said.
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Gascoigne → look → time
“Every other painting he did of Rome was an evocation of a bygone age.
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he → do → age
In many ways, it’s his great love letter to the city that inspired him throughout his life.”
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that → ’ → life
Mario Tavella, the chair of Sotheby’s Europe, said he hoped the painting would be bought by a public museum “where it could be admired by everyone”.
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it → say → everyone
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