In January 2000, Sotheby's New York sold this rediscovered Goya oil sketch for $498,000.00 USD

From the catalogue:

"The present recently discovered oil sketch by Goya was painted while the artist while he was living in Rome in preparation for his entry in the competition of 1771 sponsored by the Academy of Fine Arts in Parma. Goya’s finished painting for that competition was itself only recently rediscovered in the collection of the Asturian Selgas-Fagalde Foundation, kept at "El Pito’ in Cudillero….The rediscovery of the Selgas-Fagalde painting was based on the identification of another oil sketch presumed to be a model for the Parma project …and on several preparatory drawings for the composition from Goya’s ‘Italian sketchbook.’….The theme chosen for the Parma composition….was based on a poem by Abbot Carlos Innocenzo Frugoni who had served as secretary of the Parma academy until 1769. Goya chose to depict the River Po in the personification of a reclining male figure with the head of an ox,…In the end, Goya did not win the competition…though he did win good notices from the jury."