New York – Christie’s Old Master & Early British Drawings & Watercolors totaled $3,058,875/ £1,957,680/ €2,324,745 and Old Master Paintings Part II realized $4,400,750/ £2,816,480/ €3,344,570. The week of Old Master sales brought a combined total of $51.8 million.
Nicholas Hall, Co-Chairman of Old Masters & 19th Century Art, comments: “We are pleased to conclude the series of Old Masters sales with a sell-through rate by lot of 73% for the week, with a combined sales total of $51.8 million – up $21 million from 2011. We are also thrilled to have sold the top lot for the week with Giambattista Tiepolo’s The Arrival of Henry III at the Villa Contarini, which fetched a record price for the artist at $5.9 million, as well as the record for Thomas de Keyser’s Portrait of a Gentleman, which was bought by Lee and Juliet Folger Fund for the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The sales showed strength across all sectors of the market, at all price points, including an outstanding drawings sale.”
Jennifer Wright, Head of Sale, Old Master Drawings, comments: “We are pleased with the success of the collection from the Estate of Christian B. Peper, which was 100% sold by lot, and included the sale’s top lot, Montenegro, by Edward Lear. The eclectic Collection from Leo Steinberg, the influential art historian, also performed well. Buyers responded to fresh to the market works and recent discoveries, as represented by Simon Vouet’s A kneeling woman in a billowing mantle, and Jean François de Troy’s Christ carrying the Cross, and the strength of the market for 19th century drawings was demonstrated by the group of drawings from the Album Amicorum. We are also particularly pleased with the number of new buyers crossing over from other collecting categories, as well as the new collectors from Asia.”
Harriet Drummond, International Head of British Drawings and Watercolours, said: “Today’s strong results for British drawings – which were 90% sold by lot and made over $1.1 million – demonstrate that our sale format which combined Old Master Drawings with Early British Drawings and Watercolors in New York for the first time – is a successful one.”
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