Christie's Results
December 15 2020
Picture: Christie's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
This evening's Old Master Paintings Evening Sale at Christie's London managed to achieve £22,816,750 (inc. commission) with 86.37% of lots sold. Three lots were withdrawn before the sale, including the highly estimated £3m - £5m Bernardino Luini.
The lots that did sell sold rather well. Here are a few of the highlights. By far the top lot was Domenico Ghirlandaio Salvator Mundi, which made £2,180,500 (inc. commission) over its £300k - £500k estimate. This lot really was always going to do well, and one waits to see if the new owner will have the very yellowed varnish carefully removed. It's also rather fortunate that the pre-war provenance that this blog highlighted didn't get in the way of it coming to sale.
The large De Heem still life was hammered down at £4.8m over its £4m - £6m estimate. A Rachel Ruysch floral still life made £412,500 (inc. commission) over its £100k - £150k estimate. A portrait of a Lady by Bartolome Gonzalez y Serrano made £237,500 (inc. commission) over its £50k - £80k estimate. Finally, the finely painted Frans van Mieris Drummer Boy made £1,450,000 (hammer price) over its £800k - £1.2m estimate. Two very nice pictures by John Constable also managed to break their top estimates after commission is factored in.
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It seems that Christie's managed to achieve no less than double the value of paintings sold by Sotheby's last week. Overall, it seems that Christie's may have had the more commercially attractive paintings this time.
This will all be forgot when the bumper January sales come up. How much exactly will the Sotheby's Botticelli and Rembrandt achieve? I'm sure the amounts will make headlines around the world as soon as they are sold.
