Christie's £24m Old Master evening sale
December 6 2011
Picture: Christie's
There was a solid sale of Old Masters at Christie's tonight, with £24m coming in from just 36 lots. The highest price was £6.8 million (inc. premium) for Pieter Brueghel the Younger's The Battle between Carnival and Lent (above). The vendor made a handy profit, for he had bought it at auction in 2006 for £3.25 million. Brueghels, both Younger and Elder, have rocketed in the last few years, and are the closest thing the Old Master world has to currency. These universally understandable, easy to quantify images seem to be the place of choice for those looking park their cash in art in these uncertain times.
Other strong sellers included a newly discovered Govaert Flinck, which had once belonged to Catherine the Great, and which made £2.3 million (inc. premium); a £5.9 million Willem van de Velde II naval scene; and a £2.17 million Gainsborough full-length. This last picture slightly disappointed against a £2.5-£3.5 million estimate, but was a handsome price nonetheless.
There were only a few failures, including a terrifying looking Pontormo with condition issues. There were a few intakes of breath when the cover lot, a finely executed Goya portrait of Don Juan Lopez de Robredo, bought in at £4-£6m. However, nice picture tho' it was, I felt the estimate was too high for a portrait of a portly and not overly engaging sitter.
Finally, as an indication of where the money is coming from these days, the below portrait of a curious and unknown English merchant by Andrea Soldi, a good but not brilliant artist, smashed its estimate of £80-120,000 to make £825,000. Had the sitter not been wearing oriental dress - a real turn on for today's Middle Eastern buyers - the picture would have struggled to make more than £50,000...
