Record-breaking sums for the great masters of painting and sculpture
Christie’s and Sotheby’s have raised over 100 million pounds, with record prices achieved for as many as 17 artists
The week straddling June and July saw London take centre stage in the world of classical art with a series of auctions focusing on the great names in painting, and two exceptional works of sculpture.
The two leading auction houses raised over 100 million pounds in total from their evening sales alone: Christie’s on 30 June, with two catalogues totalling 50.7 million, and Sotheby’s on 1 July with a catalogue of old master paintings and a bronze sculpture, raising 51.3 million pounds.
The overall sales trend confirms the interest in the sector, albeit with a clear preference for a small number of big names, and the involvement of several third-party guarantees to support certain lots worth millions. Even though the evening sale catalogues had already been reduced to around forty lots, there were still several unsold lots, confirming the market’s selectivity. At the same time, buyers did not hesitate to pay record prices for as many as 17 artists, a further indication of the selectivity with which collectors in this segment operate.
Christie’s Old Masters and Exceptional Sale
On 30 June, the catalogue of 39 paintings (following the withdrawal of a Venetian view by Bernardo Bellotto, estimated at 4–6 million pounds) raised nearly 39 million pounds, with just four lots unsold, including another view, this time a typical Venetian scene by Canaletto, which remained at its estimate of 1.2–1.8 million pounds.
Whilst the Venetian landscape style fails to impress, the English aristocratic provenance and the historical subject matter have led the canvas by the 16th-century painter from Bergamo, who made Venice his home, Girolamo da Santacroce to set a new record price for a large portrait depicting the meeting between the Sultan and the Patriarch in Constantinople, which was hotly contested up to 673,000 pounds – a multiple of the estimate of 100,000–150,000.
Seven lots exceeded one million pounds, led by two records for 19th-century English artists and two for Dutch artists. The aristocratic provenance of the portrait of the first Duke of Wellington, painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence in 1821, saw it fetch 9.7 million pounds including commission, confirming the estimate of 8–12 million, whilst awork by John Strudwick from 1893, depicting a Victorian lady symbolising Music, doubled its guaranteed estimate of 700,000–1 million pounds and was sold for 1.5 million including commission.
The most significant contribution to the result, however, came from the sale—well above expectations (guaranteed by third parties)—of two decorative works by the Dutch artist Jan Van Huysum, the master of 18th-century still lifes, which together fetched 12 million pounds: a fruit basket estimated at 3–4 million was sold for a record price of 6.5 million pounds, whilst a vase of flowers of virtually identical dimensions fetched 5.5 million from an estimate of 2.5–3.5 million pounds.
A small oil sketch on panel by Rubens depicting a biblical scene was boosted by the guarantee, selling for 2.7 million pounds against an estimate of 2–3 million.
A record was also set for a lesser-known painter, the noblewoman Adelaide Labille-Guiard, with a charming late 18th-century portrait of a marquise, a relic of a world that would soon lose everything with the French Revolution, which sold for 1.1 million, having been estimated at 400–600 thousand pounds.
