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Greatest of Dresden's art patrons was Augustus III (1696-1763), both Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, who lived for art, was willing to spend as much as "twelve barrels of gold'' at a time for paintings he wanted. An insatiable collector, he acquired such paintings as Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter (which he thought was a Rembrandt), Rubens' Bathsheba and Tintoretto's Rescue of Arsinoe, in one peak year bought a grand total of 715 paintings. Greatest of Augustus' coups was his acquisition of Raphael's Sistine Madonna, once the property of the Benedictine monks of San Sisto, in Piacenza, Italy. When the painting was brought before him, Augustus pushed aside his throne, then in a rare gesture of royal humility cried: "Make room for the great Raphael."