While people online are sending out feet pics for free, this newly discovered Michelangelo foot sketch just sold for $23 million (₱1.3 billion) at an auction.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, not to be confused with the ninja turtle, was a driving force for the Renaissance art era. He was best known for his fine sculptures and iconic paintings, such as "The Creation of Adam." Though arguably, one of his most important pieces can be seen gracing the Sistine Chapel's ceiling in Vatican City. His artworks are deemed priceless, but an unsuspecting owner from the US just found out how much one of his sketches is worth after it was sold after 45 minutes of intense bidding at Christie's within the Rockefeller Center in New York.  

The small red chalk sketch can be dated as far back as 1511 to 1512, when Michelangelo was working on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. According to the anonymous owner, he received the chalk sketch after inheriting it from his grandma. He mentions the sketch had been passed down by their family since the 1700s. He submitted it to Christie's online auction estimate site when it was identified by Giada Damen, a specialist in Christie's Old Master Drawings Department. She used infrared reflectography to study parts of the drawing and cross-referenced it with Michelangelo's drawing at the Metropolitan Museum to verify its authenticity. According to her research, the foot sketch was drawn as practice for the right foot figure of the Libyan Sibyl, at the far east end of the Sistine ceiling.

Michelangelo's foot sketch was sold alongside other works by classical artists like Rembrandt, Titian, and William Blake, among many others. Sold pieces include Artemisia Gentileschi's "Self-Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria" for over $5.7 million (₱333 million) and Canaletto's for $30.54 million (₱1.7 billion).