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Image via Christie’s.
A bust of Benjamin Franklin, crafted by Flemish artist John Michael Rysbrack, is set for auction on February 7.
A bust of Benjamin Franklin, crafted by Flemish artist John Michael Rysbrack and believed to be the earliest sculpture of the Founding Father, is set for auction, writes Kristin Hunt for PhillyVoice.
Created sometime between 1757 and 1762, the piece will go up for auction through Christie’s in February 2025 and was expected to fetch between $200,000 and $300,000.
The sculpture has both the subject’s and author’s names chiseled into its back.
The piece had been lost for centuries before resurfacing in the 1980s. An English pub owner inherited the bust from a neighbor but only learned of its significance after an appraisal. He sold it through Christie’s in 1986, before it changed hands again in 2014 via a Sotheby’s auction.
The bust’s earliest known owner was Benjamin West, a Swarthmore-born artist who likely used it as a reference for his own unfinished portrait of the famed Philadelphian after moving to England.
West is also the creator of the dramatized depiction of Franklin’s discovery of electricity, a painting that now hangs in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Read more about the Benjamin Franklin sculpture going up for auction in PhillyVoice.
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Meet Benjamin Franklin as more than just the man with the kite and the key, this kid-friendly video explores his journey from runaway printer’s apprentice to inventor, diplomat, and the only American to sign all four founding documents of the United States.
Editor’s Note: This post first appeared on PHILADELPHIA Today in January 2025.
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