The story of the first painting to sell for over a million pounds

Nothing could have prepared the art world for the astounding moment in 1970 when, at a Christie’s sale on 27 November, the world auction record for a painting smashed through the million-pound barrier for the very first time. It was Velázquez’s portrait of his assistant Juan de Pareja, and in the week leading up to its sale the international press became excited about the possibility that it would beat the previous record of £821,482, paid in 1961. I had recently become the art critic of the Evening Standard, and its enlightened editor, Charles Wintour, asked me to write a special article about this Velázquez portrait.

Propped up on a chair in a secluded top-floor room at Christie’s headquarters, this painting impressed me profoundly. I was able to sit down and gaze at it for a long time, writing notes for a piece published the day before the sale. It was the first time that a colour reproduction accompanied anything I had written for the Evening Standard.