Canaletto record at Christie's London

London's week dedicated to classical art started with theevening auction of the great masters of painting at Christie's on 1 July. The result of the 39 lots offered after three withdrawals, and five unsold works, was close to GBP 55.3 million, of which GBP 31.9 million was in one lot, the record view of Canaletto. Guarantees played an important role with nine lots protected by third parties, who in all likelihood had to intervene in four cases in the absence of further bids. Four of the six first lots were guaranteed for realisation, although Canaletto attracted interest from at least three buyers, rendering the guarantee useless.

Tiziano Vecellio, “Portrait of a nobleman, seated before a window”

The classic large view of Venice with the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day was destined to break the previous record for the artist from the moment a guarantee was secured on the lot. The 86 x 138 cm painting, part of a pair painted in the 1730s, considered by historians and collectors to be the artist's best period, came to auction with a long and important noble and historical provenance that significantly added value. Together with the 'twin' view of the Grand Canal and Rialto, they came from the collection of Sir Robert Walpole, the first British Prime Minister until 1742.
Subsequently, the paintings passed into the hands of various English noble families, and then had an 'Italian' chapter after World War II, when they were bought in London by Mario Crespi, senator and owner of the Corriere della Sera, in the 1950s, only to end up in France and be sold separately. The twin painting of the Grand Canal with Rialto held the record price of £18.6 million for 20 years, while the Bucintoro painting was sold in 1993 by Tajan in France for the then equivalent of €10 million. The size, quality and history of the painting have led to the current new record, in a context of buyers increasingly focused on the search for the 'trophy'; the buyer could also be the owner of the other pendant painting, who is willing to bid to reunite the pair.

Gerrit Dou. “A cottage interior with an old woman (’Rembrandt’s Mother’) delousing a boy’s hair”

In addition to the Canaletto, five lots crossed the £1 million threshold, two of which were offered without collateral: these were a severe male aristocratic portrait painted by Titian around the mid-1600s, which sold after a single raise in the room to £3.4m with commissions, from an estimate of £3-5m, and one of 45 versions of the winter bird-trap scene by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, which came close to £1.2m, below the estimate of £1-1.5m before commissions were added.
Three paintings from the Flemish Golden Age all secured over a million: a large and rich Still Life by Jan Davidsz de Heem dated 1649 most likely ended up to the third-party guarantor at £3.6m with commissions, up from an estimate of £3-5m, while an exuberant pair of paintings with flowering vases and fruit by Jan van Huysum from the mid-18th century changed hands at £1.6m, within the estimate of £1.2-1.8m thanks probably to a raise above the guarantee.
Better than the guaranteed estimate of £1-1.5m, however, was a small interior view by Gerrit Dou, a pupil of Rembrandt, which fetched close to £2.1m; the painting was part of a group of seven lots consigned by the heirs of the collector Daniel George van Beuningen (who died 70 years ago); two of these probably ended up with third-party guarantors, a Venus with Cupid by Cranach the Younger at £630,000 and a religious painting by El Greco and studio at £756,000, while a country interior scene by Pieter Brueghel the Younger surpassed its estimate of £300-500,000 to stop at £819,000 with commissions, for a total of the six lots sold for around £5 million.
A second collection, that of Mickey Cartin, totalled close to £1.5m, led by a grim female portrait with two beards by Willem Key that went over the guaranteed estimate realising £882,000, while a self-portrait by Hammershoi remained unsold from the £200-300,000 estimate. In total, only seven lots exceeded their high estimates before commissions were added, and more than a dozen failed to reach their low estimates; there were few bids, except for the cases mentioned above. Sotheby's completed the bidding with an evening catalogue on 2 July.