Rare Rubens drawing bought at small French sale up for auction

Surviving page from notebook all but destroyed in fire in 1720 expected to fetch as much as 600,000

A drawing bought in a small French sale by a buyer with a hunch has been identified as a rare surviving page from an important notebook made by a young Peter Paul Rubens.

If Rubens' original Theoretical Notebook still existed it would be a true art wonder, but it was all but destroyed in a fire in 1720. Only two pages were thought to have survived, treasures of collections in London and Berlin.