Sotheby's NY Old Master sales
February 4 2014
Picture: Sotheby's
Sotheby's total haul for the Old Master week was $76.2m, so some way ahead of Christie's at $64.2m (all prices inc. buyer's premium). The top lot was Honthorst's fine and newly discovered musical scene, above, which made $7.5m, against a $2m-$3m estimate. Other notable prices included $2.4m for Jan Miense Molenaer's Self-Portrait with his Wife, Judith Leyster (Frans Hals' daughter), $4.4m for a Jacob Ochtervelt genre scene, and $5.8m for a curious early work by El Greco, which was based on a lost Titian. Notable casualties included a 'playful' nude scene by Fragonard, which bought in at $6m-$8m. Yesterday's taste...
I may be wrong, but it seems to me that Sotheby's in New York usually has a better haul of pictures than Christie's. Maybe I'm swayed by the presentation - Sotheby's NY headquarters is infinitely nicer than Christie's, and the pictures are showed to much better effect.
Incidentally, this last comment doesn't apply to Sotheby's new website, which is woeful.
