After the encouraging results of Christie’s sale on Tuesday night, Sotheby’s follow up on Wednesday was an uneven one (20 of the 54 lots did not sell.) Overall however, it produced some spectacular surprises. The market’s connoisseurship once again demonstrated that value is not necessarily found in a big name-two of top selling lots were by relatively minor painters-a “Portrait of Bindo Altoviti” by Girolamo da Carpi, and “A young woman in a red jacket feeding a parrot,” by Franz Mieris the Elder (were by painters of minor reputation. Meanwhile, a painting by the renowned Pieter Breughel the Younger went down unsold, because it had reappeared on the market so quickly.
Highs and Lows at Sotheby’s Old Masters Sale [ART INFO]
Banker Portrait Fetches 15 Times Forecast at London Art Auction [Scott Reyburn, Bloomberg]
Old master sales show resilience amid art weakness [ Mike Collet-White, Reuters]
Further news covering the Christie’s sale:
Strong Old Masters Result Led by Painting Found in Attic [ART INFO
[...] and Sotheby’s Old Master auctions are successes in spite of the art market’s recent [...]
[...] a valuation could be taken as further evidence of Old Masters durability over the past year, given the current economic circumstances. Given the picture’s [...]