Sotheby's London Evening Sale
December 4 2024
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Sotheby's London Evening Sale realised a total of £24,164,000 (with commission) with a sell-through rate of 76.93% / 73.08% including withdrawn lots.*
The Italian pictures, heavily featured within the auction, did rather well at the high end of things. The top lot was Botticelli's Madonna and Child Enthroned which had at least 4 or 5 frantic bidders to eventually reach an impressive £8.6m (hammer) over its £2m - £3m estimate. This is £9,960,000 including commission. Catherine the Great's Rosso Fiorentino made £2.8m (inc. commission) over its £2m - £3m estimate, although Artemisia's Magdalene came in at well below its low estimate. There were also strong results for paintings by Rubens, Antonio Joli and Pieter Claiessens the Elder.
The crescendo of the sale was Gustav and Ernst Klimt's Hanswurst Delivering an Impromptu Performance in Rothenburg which reached £2,220,000 over its £300k - £500k estimate, a phenomenal work which as one of my old friends remarked felt more like a collage of photographs rather than a painting, due to the almost photorealistic quality of the various faces encountered in the scene.
* - 1 lot was withdrawn.
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