Sotheby's New York Old Masters Week Sales Total $73.1 Million

Sotheby’s annual Old Masters Week sales in New York concluded last Friday 27th January with a strong cumulative total of $73,052,668. Top 10 sheets are attached for each of the four sales, including Friday’s auctions of Masterworks and Old Master & 19th Century European Art.

The sale of Important Old Master Paintings & Sculpture totalled $62,081,477, and was highlighted by five remarkable pictures that achieved prices over $4 million – led by Canaletto’s View of the Churches of the Redentore and San Giacomo from the Estate of Lady Forte that sold for $5,682,500 (est. $5/7 million), and Lucas Cranach the Elder’s portrait Lucretia that brought $5,122,500 (est. $4/6 million). New auction records were established for artists including Simone Martini, Fra Bartolommeo and Charles-Antoine Coypel.

On Wednesday, the auction of Old Master Drawings achieved $5,640,813 – the highest result for an auction in this category at Sotheby’s New York since 1998. The sale featured an Italian Renaissance Portrait of a Young Man attributed to Piero del Pollaiuolo, which sold to the J. Paul Getty museum in California for $1,398,500 – well above its $400,000 high estimate. Friday’s auctions of Masterworks and Old Master & 19th Century European Art added a combined $5,330,387 to the week’s total.

Click here to read the of sale reports and full round-up of top tens.