Whereas this winter’s premier auctions for Previous Grasp works at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New York yielded higher outcomes year-over-year, total gross sales totals did not dwell as much as the pre-sale estimates set by the public sale homes.
Christie’s New York staged a bumpy and uneven Previous Grasp sale on Wednesday (6 January), making $19.5m ($24.4m with charges), simply shy of its revised pre-sale estimate of $22.2m to 33.2m after 4 withdrawals. Nonetheless, the sale far exceeded final January’s anemic results of $10.9m ($13.7m with charges).
The sombre but impressively outfitted Portrait of George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony attributed to Lucas Cranach I and workshop offered for $260,000 ($327,600 with charges), settling a restitution dispute over possession between the Allentown Artwork Museum and the heirs of Henry and Hertha Bromberg, whose forebears acquired the oil-on-panel work in 1917 and have been pressured to flee Nazi Germany within the Nineteen Thirties. The museum acquired the work in 1961 from an unnamed New York gallery.
Joachim Anthonisz Wtewael’s large-scale Adam and Eve (round 1610-15) offered to a phone bidder for $1.65m ($2m with charges) towards a $1m to $1.5m estimate. The work was primarily based on Albrecht Dürer’s iconic engraving from 1504. Switching to nonetheless life, Pieter Claesz’s A peeled lemon on a pewter plate, a pewter wine jar, a roemer, gooseberries and crimson currants in a dish, a knife, on {a partially} draped desk (1632) introduced in a below-estimate $575,000 ($724,500 with charges). The work had been in the identical personal assortment since 1980.
A sans workshop-aided work by Lucas Cranach I, Hercules and Omphale (1532), offered to a different nameless phone bidder for $1.5m ($1.8m with charges) towards an estimate of $1m to $2m. Within the portray, the artist’s serpent machine is an alternative to his signature and the work options the demigod Hercules, nonetheless amorous however outfitted in ladies’s clothes as slavish punishment from Omphale, the Queen of Lydia.
Saint Sebastian by El Greco Courtesy Christie’s
The would-be star of the sale—and presumably the entire Previous Masters week, at the least estimate-wise—was Doménikos Theotokópoulos’s (higher generally known as El Greco) dramatic Saint Sebastian, which portrays the saint as a willowy, principally nude determine pierced by six arrows and searching heavenward in surprisingly rapturous calm. It was estimated by Christie’s to promote for between $7m and $9m. The portray was withdrawn on the eleventh hour after authorized wrangling by representatives of the prime minister of Romania over claims the long-ago King Carol I used to be the rightful proprietor.
Christie’s issued an announcement late Tuesday with none particular reference to Romania: “We obtained an inquiry in regards to the work. Christie’s takes these issues significantly and out of an abundance of warning is withdrawing the lot at the moment. We stay up for promoting this distinctive and spectacular work at a later date.” The withdrawn portray was final acquired privately for the vendor by the now-disbanded artwork advisory powerhouse Giraud Pissarro Segalot in 2010 for an undisclosed worth.
Again within the salesroom, Johann Georg Platzer’s jam-packed and multi-figured An artist’s studio in oil on copper, initially gifted to a Russian empress and later offered to the vendor Bob P. Haboldt, fetched $130,000 ($163,800 with charges).
The only girl artist on the roster turned heads, however in the end Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun’s seated Portrait of a girl historically referred to as Mademoiselle George three-quarter size (after 1800) failed to satisfy its undisclosed reserve and was purchased in at $95,000. In one other and extra profitable femme fatale vein, Francois Boucher’s reclining nude, Sleeping Diana, portrays the goddess of the hunt sporting her headdress and quiver of arrows snugly match beneath her arm. The portray realised $1.2m ($1.5m with charges) towards a $1.2m to $1.8m estimate.
Sleeping Diana by Francois Boucher Courtesy Christie’s
Jan Each’s drama-filled An Italianate Panorama with Bandits Main Prisoners (round 1650) was deaccessioned by the Museum of High-quality Arts Boston and did not discover a purchaser; it was purchased in at a $720,000 chandelier bid.
“It was a blended bag and blended outcome, and we received two issues very moderately, so there’s all the time one thing that drops,” stated Edmondo di Robilant from Robilant + Voena. The vendor snagged Charles-Antoine Coypel’s Portrait of of a person in a painted body (1781) for $50,000 ($63,000 with charges) towards a $120,000 to $180,000 estimate, together with Luca Giordano’s somewhat beautiful and large-scale Samson and Delilah (late 1650s) for $65,000 ($81,900 with charges), far lower than its $150,000 to $250,000 estimate. It final offered at Sotheby’s London in July 1997 for £199,500 ($336,879 with charges).
‘Getting works in all areas to the public sale block is tougher than ever’
On Thursday (6 February), the primary a part of Sotheby’s Grasp Work & Sculpture sale got here on deck and delivered a stronger $23.3m ($27.5m with charges) outcome towards a pre-sale estimate of $25.2m to $37.2m. It comfortably surpassed the February 2024 sale’s tally of $16.8m ($21m with charges), even after six last-minute withdrawals. Nonetheless, the sale registered a battle-weary sell-through fee of 59.2%. Three tons got here backed by home ensures and 6 by irrevocable bids, also referred to as third-party ensures.
Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, attributed to the workshop of Sandro Botticelli, drew in three bidders and realised $550,000 ($660,000 with charges) towards an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. The work was deaccessioned by the Bass Museum in Miami Seashore to profit the John and Johanna Bass Artwork Acquisition Fund.
Nonetheless on the non secular entrance, Raffaello Sanzio or Raphael accomplished the contemplative and barefoot Saint Mary Magdalene (round 1503) when he was solely 20 years previous. The portray offered to an nameless phone bidder for $2.6m ($3.1m with charges) towards a $2m to $3m estimate. It got here to market backed by a third-party assure. The consignor acquired it at Christie’s New York in Might 2000 for $611,00 with charges, when it was titled Saint Mary of Egypt.
Annunciation by Peter Paul Rubens Courtesy Sotheby’s
Sir Peter Paul Rubens’s oil sketch Annunciation (round 1628-29) is modestly scaled however brimming with bravura content material. It options Mary with the angel Gabriel fluttering above her and offered to Patrick Williams of New York’s Adam Williams High-quality Artwork for $4m ($4.8m with charges) towards a $4m to $6m estimate. It final offered at Sotheby’s London in 2014 for significantly extra, £3.1m ($5.4m) together with charges.
A well-recognized-looking Hercules on the Courtroom of Omphale (1533) attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop—fairly comparable (although bigger) to the one which offered on Wednesday at Christie’s for twice the value—offered to a different phone bidder for $700,000 ($840,000 with charges). Nonetheless outfitted in ladies’s clothes and slavishly spinning thread, this time Hercules is grabbing the bottom and breast of two of the ladies-in-waiting.
Again to single-figure portraiture, Jacopo Tintoretto’s Portrait of a Younger Man Carrying a Fur-lined Cloak (round 1548) was final publicly seen on the Nationwide Gallery of Artwork in Washington, DC’s exhibition Tintoretto of Renaissance Venice in 2019. At Sotheby’s this week, it realised $1.8m ($2.1m with charges). Leaning towards an elaborately carved column depicting acanthus leaves, the titular determine stares out confidently, maybe contemptuously on the viewer.
Portrait of an elegantly Attired Noblewoman in Profile by Bernardino de’ Conti
Bernardino de’ Conti’s sombre although elaborately dressed Portrait of an elegantly Attired Noblewoman in Profile (round 1500) got here with a third-party assure and loped to a $2.8 m ($3.1m with charges), an public sale file for the Milanese painter in Leonardo’s circle.
Backed by a full-on home assure, Spagna’s beautiful and calming Madonna and Youngster in a Verdant Panorama (round 1510) stumbled and went unsold at $380,000 towards an estimate of $800,000 to $1.2m.
One other assured entry was Pieter Brueghel the Youthful’s action-packed Nest Robber (after 1616), which depicts partially a younger peasant climbing a tree to grab his bounty, offered to a phone bidder for $2.5m ($3m with charges). The portray was consigned by the Swiss collectors Hans and Marion König.
One of many extra sought-after works, and one other König lot insured with an irrevocable bid, Cornelis de Vos’s Portrait of a Younger Lady at a Virginal (round 1625-30) raced to $1.7m ($2m with charges) towards an estimate of $600,000 to $800,000. The couple acquired it in 1985 from the Richard Inexperienced Gallery in London.
Portrait of a Younger Lady at a Virginal by Cornelis de Vos Courtesy Sotheby’s
A second Sotheby’s Grasp Work sale realised $2.8m ($3.3m with charges), considerably shy of its $3.2m to $4.6m pre-sale estimate.
Whereas Sotheby’s had one thing to crow about this spherical, London-based and seasoned artwork adviser Morgan Lengthy noticed after the primary sale: “All of the markets are powerful to promote and getting works in all areas to the public sale block is tougher than ever.”
One other sort of Previous Grasp topped all others this week: the rare-to-market Joachim-Ma Stradivarius violin, hand-crafted by Antonio Stradivari in Cremona, Italy in 1714. The violin, with a still-stunning amber gold varnish, offered at Sotheby’s on Thursday afternoon in a one-off public sale for $10m ($11.3m with charges), breaking the file for the best worth ever achieved for a musical instrument at public sale. The proceeds will endow scholarships on the New England Conservatory.
