Lady with flowers by Juan Luna y Novicio was the most expensive lot sold this November in the Madrid bidding room. With a starting price of 12.000 euros, the oil on canvas signed on the lower right hand corner, was auctioned off for a hammer price of 80.000 euros. A completely unexpected escalation that could have possibly been discerned.

Juan Luna y Novicio, (Badoc, Philipines, 1857- Hong Kong, 1899) revolutionary, politician, sailor, murderer, sculptor and painter, was the first Philipine artist of inernatonal acclaim. A disciple of Agustín Saez in Manilla, his career took him to Spain where he would continue his studies in the Academy of San Fernando. Eduardo Rosales was his mentor until his death in 1873 when Alejo Vera took him under hiswing and encouraged him to go to Rome.

After his Italian soujorn, his talent was clearly established in the first exhibition of novel artists celebrated in Madrid in 1878, known as Exposición Nacional de Bellas Artes, where he was awarded the silver medal for his work The Death of Cleopetra. 

A personal friend of the king Alfonso XII of Spain, he received several commissions from several Spanish institutions such as the Battle of Lepanto for the Senate in Madrid. A comission he always considered as a consolation for not having been awarded the honorary prize the previous year for his work Spolarium. His death was symultaneous to the American praise he received for his work Peuple et Rois which was selected as the best work of the St. Louis Universal Exhibition. Alfonso Carbajo Agrasar  

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