Christie's London announced on 21 May 2007 that Lorenzo de' Medici (1518), a soundly provenance portrait of the famous Italian Renaissance master Raffaello Sanzio, known as Raphael (1483-1520 ), will be available to purchase as part of the Important Old Master and British Pictures auction on Thursday 5 July 2007. On display in the esteemed auction house's King Street sales rooms from 30 June will be the painting by Raphael, one of the few paintings still private artist. Owned by Ira Spanierman since 1968, the question of attribution of the work to Raphael was addressed by Sir Charles Robinson (1824-1913) and firmly resolved in 1971 by the prolific Konrad Oberhuber, former director of the Albertina Museum in Vienna. The masterpiece is expected to raise up to £15 million at auction. Lorenzo de' Medici was last exhibited to the public more than 40 years ago. Interest in Raphael's works and Medici portraiture has increased following three recent special exhibitions: Splendor of Florence at the Federal Hall National Memorial on Wall Street (1 October - 12 November 2004); Raphael: From Urbino to Rome (24 October 2004 – 16 January 2005) at the National Gallery in London and Raphael at the Met: The Colonna Altarpiece at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (20 June – 3 September 2006). Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (Lorenzo II) (1492-1519) was the nephew of Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent (1449-1492), an ingenious statesman of the Florentine Republic, supporter of the Neoplatonic Academy and patron of the arts. He was also the nephew of Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici (1475-1521), eventually elected Pope Leo X (r. 1513-21). Lorenzo II's uncle is remembered above all for having granted Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (1490-1545) permission to sell indulgences (remissions of temporal punishment in purgatory for sins already absolved by the Church) in the lands under his jurisdiction.