Head of a Muse was drawn as part of a study in Parmasssus and is part of a series of Frescoes that were completed in the Vatican at the Stanze della Segnatura.

It was produced back to 1508-15011 and was commissioned by Pope Julius II.

Before last night, the highest price for a drawing at an auction was a Degas that sold at a 2008 New York auction for £22,742,106.

This was the first time that the Raphael drawing was involved in a public auction in over 150 years.  During the same sale, a Rembrandt first broke a record when it reached an auction price of £20.2m,

The Rembrandt, Portrait of A Man, Half-Length with His Hands Akimbo was given the largest pre sale estimate that has been seen for an Old Master painting.

The highest Old Master record for an auction was set in 2002 when a painting by Ruben far exceeded a six million pound estimate and sold for £50m.

Still, the Rembrandt is now fourth on the list of Old Master artworks that sold for millions at the auction house.

The extremely rich consider high ticket artworks to be a viable investment option in a year when the art market has continued to take a beating.

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The works belonged to the group’s founder Calisto Tanzi.

The group has been nicknamed the Enron of Europe since its collapse in 2003 leaving behind debts that total up to 14 billion euro.  Parma police said they found the assets after a series of telephone intercepts were made.  One of the paintings discovered by police was about to be auctioned off.

The art included many famous works by Degas, Picasso, Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Cezanne.   The artwork was all found in homes of the Tanzi family’s friends.

Chief Parma prosecutor, Gerardo Laguardia, stated that they have had some suspicions about certain people for a while, which is why they tapped the phone lines.  After further investigation they found that one of the Monet’s was involved in negotiations for sale.

Parmalat was the largest corporate bankruptcy in Europe’s history.  Its founder, Tanzi, is serving his ten years in prison after sentencing last year for his part in the fraud.

The company came back from bankruptcy in 2005 and is not run by the administrator Enrico Bondi.

Bondi has been searching for the lost assets to repay debts since the collapse, while also going after international investment banks that had a role in advising the company on bond issues.

The fraud affected about 100,000 shareholders in Italy who lost their life savings.

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