The 8-inch-by-11-inch painting is Christ Mocked, part of a series of eight scenes from the last days of Jesus that dates to the 1280s. The artist was Cimabue, who some art historians revere as influential in the development of Western painting. It was the first time that a work by the celebrated painter had been up for sale at auction.

Two other sections of the eight-section diptych hang in public galleries–one (The Virgin and Child with Two Angels) in the National Gallery in London and the other (The Flagellation of Christ)in the Frick Collection in New York. The work now hanging in the National Gallery was found in a Suffolk home when the family found reason to empty the contents.

Cimabue, who was also known as Cenni de Pepo, worked in Florence, his birthplace, and in Assisi and Pisa. He was known for his frescoes and mosaics. He is credited with discovering and training Giotto, whom many art historians consider the greatest Italian painter of the 14th Century.

The Senlis-based Acteon Auction House said that the expected sale price range was €4–6 million. That was the most money paid for a painting by a European old master since the record-obliterating $450 million paid in 2017 for Salvator Mundi, a newly discovered painting by Leonardo Da Vinci.

The buyer, whose name was not announced, was from near Chantilly, a town north of Paris. Doing the heavy lifting during the auction was Fabrizio Morretti, based in London.