White gloves for Sheikh Hamad’s collection
A total of €21.4 million was realised, well above the estimates of €10.4–15.7 million, with 100 per cent of lots sold in each session and 57 per cent of lots sold for more than the highest estimates
Key points
Five auctions from 4 to 9 November made for a veritable ‘marathon’ that crossed the finish line, celebrating beauty and good taste. The sales of the collection of artworks and furnishings from the residence on Avenue Floquet belonging to Sheikh Hamad Bin Abdullah Al Thani raised €21.4 million at Sotheby’s Paris, well above the initial estimates of €10.4–15.7 million. A 100 per cent sell-through rate was achieved in every session, and on average 57 per cent of the lots exceeded their highest starting estimates. This success was due not only to the illustrious and refined provenance but also to Sotheby’s careful curation. The judicious setting of estimates, the absence of a reserve price for numerous lots, as well as the display of the works in Sotheby’s Paris exhibition spaces, staged by two renowned interior designers – Jacques Garcia and Chahan Minassian – certainly enhanced the desirability of many of the items.
The spirit of the collection, centred on a cultured eclecticism that brings together different works and styles in dialogue with one another, has been recognised with widespread acclaim across eras and genres, from the Old Masters to silverware, from ceramics to European furnishings, right through to 20th-century design.
Top auctions
The highest total was achieved at the evening auction with 7.3 million (from 3.7–5.6 in the initial estimates), followed by the Art Deco session with a total of 5.5 million (from 2.5–3.6) in which over 71 per cent of the lots exceeded the highest estimate, followed by the day sale with 4.9 million (from 2.5–3.7 million), then the collection of wunderkammer objects, which reached 1.9 million (from 1.2–1.8), and finally the online auction, which raised 1.8 million (from 630,850–958,700).
The absolute top lot in the collection belongs to the world of ancient sculpture: a Roman marble sculpture depicting a young man, dating from the 1st–2nd centuries, with restorations from the late 17th–early 18th centuries, which attracted bids of up to 448,000 euros, from an initial estimate of 250,000–400,000. Second place on the podium, meanwhile, went to a writing desk by Eugène Printz, from 1929, characterised by the purity of its lines, which sold for 358,400 euros (from 120,000–180,000), representing an increase even on the original purchase price, which was 289,000 at a Christie’s auction in 2012. The crisis in the antique furniture market has not affected the prestigious pieces at auction, as demonstrated by the pair of gilded wooden sofas, dating from circa 1740–44, originally from the Palazzo Carrega Cataldi in Genoa, which rose from an estimate of 200–300 thousand to a final sale price of 345,600. The same can be said of a pair of gilded wooden armchairs from the George III period, circa 1765, crafted in the style of Thomas Chippendale, which more than doubled their maximum estimate of 120,000 euros to sell for 256,000. A set of 12 polychrome wooden chairs in the Louis XVI style, commissioned in 2013 from Jean-François Lesage and modelled on those designed in the late 18th century by François II Foliot for the Chaumière aux Coquillages at Rambouillet Castle, which changed hands for 166,400 euros.
In the field of decorative arts, a number of Delft pottery pieces attracted considerable interest, including a pair of pyramid-shaped flower vases dating from around 1695, which almost tripled their upper estimate (70–100 thousand) to be sold for 281,600. Paintings from the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods were also well received, with a small portrait of a gentleman standing out in particular.
