Sotheby’s To Bring $15–20 Million Rembrandt Lion Drawing To Saudi Arabia – Most Important Rembrandt Drawing To Appear At Auction In 50 Years

 Later this month, Sotheby’s will bring to Saudi Arabia the most important Rembrandt drawing to appear at auction in 50 years. Estimated at $15–20 million, Young Lion Resting comes to market from The Leiden Collection, one of the world’s most important private collections of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish art.

The drawing will be on public view at Diriyah’s Bujairi Terrace from 24 to 25 January, alongside the full contents of Origins II — Sotheby’s forthcoming second auction in Saudi Arabia — ahead of its offering at Sotheby’s New York on 4 February 2026. The entire proceeds from the sale will benefit Panthera, the world’s leading organisation dedicated to the conservation of wild cats, co-founded by philanthropists Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan and his wife, Daphne Recanati Kaplan. Young Lion Resting is being sold by The Leiden Collection in partnership with its co-owner, philanthropist Jon Ayers, the Chairman of the Board of Panthera.

Established in 2006, Panthera was born from the shared vision of the late renowned wildlife biologist Dr. Alan Rabinowitz and Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan, with a mission to ensure a future for wild cats and the vast landscapes on which they depend. As the leading global conservation charity operating exclusively in this field, Panthera is actively engaged in the Middle East, where it is spearheading the reintroduction of the critically endangered Arabian leopard to AlUla, in partnership with the Royal Commission for AlUla.

Capturing the lion’s power, poise and restless energy with remarkable subtlety, Young Lion Resting is one of only six known Rembrandt drawings of lions, and the only example remaining in private hands. Rembrandt would have been in his early to mid-thirties when he executed this small yet intensely intimate work, and the immediacy of the image suggests it was drawn from life — though precisely where the artist encountered the lion remains unknown. Long before Rembrandt ever sketched a lion in 17th-century Europe, lions roamed northwest Arabia alongside leopards. Their presence still endures in AlUla’s landscape, carved into ancient rock faces and most powerfully embodied in the Lion Tombs of Dadan, where stone lions have stood watch for some 2,000 years.

For Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan, this drawing holds deep personal meaning, marking his first Rembrandt acquisition — he would go on to acquire no fewer than 17 paintings by the artist. Releasing it now, with proceeds directed towards conservation, gives the work a living future, linking art, heritage and the protection of wild cats. From 2017 to 2024, Dr. Kaplan served as Chairman of the International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage (ALIPH) — a Geneva-based foundation supporting concrete and sustainable initiatives to protect the richness and diversity of the world’s cultural heritage, with over 575 projects in 64 countries to date. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a founding member of ALIPH and is represented on the Board by H.H. Prince Badr bin Abdullah Al Saud, the country’s Minister of Culture and Governor of the Royal Commission for AlUla.

The exhibition in Diriyah — the birthplace of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and home to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of At-Turaif — will also, for the first time, present the full range of works offered in Origins II, a sale of modern and contemporary art featuring leading Saudi and Middle Eastern artists alongside renowned international names such as Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Anish Kapoor. Comprising 64 lots, the pre-sale exhibition will remain on public view throughout the week, culminating in the open-air auction on Saturday, 31 January at 7.30pm in Diriyah — the Destination Partner for Origins II — at the amphitheatre. The online catalogue is available here.

The sale promises auction debuts for Saudi artists Mohamed Siam and Dia Aziz Dia, among the most significant voices of the Kingdom’s second generation of modern artists, presented alongside their trailblazing peers, including Safeya Binzagr, Abdulhalim Radwi, and Mohammed Al Saleem. Carving a niche of its own is a rare alabaster figure of a woman from ancient South Arabia, which stands as a compelling testament to the culture’s artistic sophistication.