Cat Painting Sells For Close to $1M

“The smallest feline is a masterpiece.”

—Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci may have admired cats, but it’s a painting by a different artist that has people buzzing.

San Francisco art patron and millionaire Kate Birdsall Johnson had Carl Kahler paint this portrait of her 42 favorite cats in 1891. She kept more than 300 purr babies at her summer home in Sonoma County. The one right in the middle of the painting--that’s Sultan. Mrs. Johnson paid $3,000 for him in Paris.

The massive painting is six feet by eight feet and weighs more than 200 pounds. The 1906 earthquake was no match for it--the work came through unscathed.

The unnamed owner sold the painting through the auction house Sotheby’s. The pre-aution estimate was $200,000. The painting apparently attracted some fat cat bidders because, when the gavel fell, the final price was $826,000.

The painting was apparently named by Robert C. Johnson, who knew his place in the household’s pecking order: ’My Wife’s Lovers.’

--Image via Sotheby’s