Turner's masterpiece of Rome returns to city ahead of UK sale that could set a record

One of J.M.W. Turner ’s best-known landscapes went on display in Rome on Tuesday ahead of a U.K. auction where it could fetch about 50 million euros ($57 million), potentially setting a new auction record for the British artist.

“Rome, From Mount Aventine” was unveiled at Palazzo Rondinini in the Italian capital, where it will be on public display for three days before being auctioned by Sotheby’s in London on Dec. 9.

The 1836 work depicts a sweeping view of Rome from the Aventine Hill overlooking the Tiber River. Sotheby’s considers it to be among the most significant Turner works remaining in private hands.

Its exhibition in Rome comes nearly two centuries after the city inspired the work. Sotheby’s said Turner based the painting on sketches made during an 1828 visit and probably began it in Rome before completing it in London for exhibition at the Royal Academy.

Julian Gascoigne, a senior specialist in British paintings at Sotheby ’s, said the work is notable for its exceptional state of preservation, allowing viewers to appreciate Turner’s technique in unusual detail.

Gascoigne said Turner applied oil paint “as if it was watercolor, building it up in successive translucent layers of hazy light and glazes, and the thick impasto of vigorous brush strokes and scraping of palette knives, and he even used his fingers on occasion.”

Mario Tavella, chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, said the estimate reflects the painting’s rarity, provenance and condition.

The painting last sold at Sotheby’s in 2014 for $47.6 million, setting what was then a record for a Turner work. It has remained with the same owner since.

Turner’s patron Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro commissioned the painting, which later entered the collection of Archibald Primrose, the 5th Earl of Rosebery, who went on to serve as British prime minister.

According to Sotheby’s, Rosebery acquired the work for his wife, Hannah de Rothschild, one of Britain’s wealthiest women at the time.

The painting remained in the Rosebery family collection for more than a century before its 2014 sale.