Focus on this artwork and explore the First painting.
The first version painted by Rubens dates from around 1611–12. At the end of the seventeenth century, the painting became part of the Liechtenstein Collection in Vienna, Austria, along with another Rubens painting, Samson and Delilah. The Forchondt brothers sold both paintings to Hans-Adam I, Prince of Liechtenstein whom they knew through his father Karl Eusebius, Prince of Liechtenstein around 1700. The paintings were given the Liechtenstein family seal and are recorded in the collection until the 19th century, where drawings in 1815 show they hung side by side in the Garden Palace in Vienna.After being catalogued by Vincenzio Fanti as a Franciscus de Neve (II) in 1767, the Massacre was attributed in an anonymous inventory of the Liechtenstein Collection dated 1780 to one of Rubens' assistants, Jan van den Hoecke, after Rubens. 
The composition was already known from what is now seen as a copy by Rubens' workshop. This was bought in 1902 by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels as a work by Antoon Sallaert. Under that attribution it remained until it was sold to an Austrian family in 1920. It was subsequently loaned in 1923 to Stift Reichersberg, a monastery in northern Austria. 
In 2001, the painting was seen by George Gordon, an expert in Flemish and Dutch paintings at Sotheby's in London. He was persuaded that it was indeed a Rubens by its similar characteristics and style to the Samson and Delilah painted around the same time. The work was sold at auction at Sotheby's, London on July 10, 2002, for £49.5 million (C$117 million) to Canadian businessman and art collector Kenneth Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet. 
Following the auction the painting was loaned to the National Gallery, London for a period before its transfer in 2008 to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, to whom Thomson had donated it, and which was undergoing a major rebuilding and expansion during those years.
collection Karl Eusebius, Prince of Liechtenstein National Gallery, London Samson and Delilah Art Gallery of Ontario Austria Toronto Forchondt brothers Rubens Franciscus de Neve (II) Liechtenstein Collection Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium Hans-Adam I, Prince of Liechtenstein Sotheby's Vienna Antoon Sallaert National Gallery Stift Reichersberg Kenneth Thomson, 2nd Baron Thomson of Fleet Jan van den Hoecke C$ Brussels