Rediscovered in France a while ago, the first known nude drawing by Michelangelo fetched 23 million euros ($24 million) at an auction at Christie's in Paris on Wednesday.

Including the buyer's premium, the sale price far outstripped the Renaissance artist's previous record for a drawing of 9.5 million euros for "The Risen Christ" at Christie's in London in 2000 but fell short of the list price of 30 million euros.

Representing a naked man with two other background figures, the late 15th-century sketch in pen and brown ink recently resurfaced in a private French collection after more than a century.

The auction house took bids for Old Masters works in a curated selection of European drawings, paintings, sculptures and works of art spanning from the 13th to the 19th centuries.

"There are fewer than ten drawings by Michelangelo which exist in private hands," Helene Rihal, director of Christie's ancient and 19th-century drawings department, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) ahead of the auction of the work last put up for sale in 1907 at Paris's Hotel Drouot.

The work by the Italian Renaissance genius (1475-1564) dates from the late 15th century and had thus far managed to "escape the attention of specialists," according to Christie's, which has declared it to be very well preserved.

It was only in 2019 that experts identified it as one of the artist's works during an inventory of a private French collection.

That September it was declared a "national treasure of France," which prevented its exit from French territory for 30 months, while giving the French government and museums the opportunity to buy it back.

However, no offer was forthcoming and recent weeks saw the work exhibited in Hong Kong and New York to drum up interest ahead of the auction.

The sketch is the size of an A4 sheet of paper and may have been inspired by a fresco by the painter Masaccio, "The Baptism of the Neophytes" (1426-27).

But "it's so much more than a copy," Christie's Old Masters expert Stijn Alsteens said on the auctioneer's website.

"Michelangelo has decided to make the figure into something that corresponded more to his aesthetic by making him much more robust and monumental, while at the same time keeping the fragility of the figure, who is exposed and shivering" as he awaits baptism, he said.

Alsteens added that the artist might have made the sketch aged around 21, on the cusp of his high-profile career.