Just One Bidder
January 27 2011
Picture: Sotheby's
The New York Times reports that there was just one bidder for the epic Titian sold by Sotheby's in New York on Thursday. Still, they managed to set an auction record for a work by Titian.
More interesting, perhaps, was the fierce struggle to secure Perino del Vaga's Holy Family with the Infant John the Baptist. At the beginning of the bidding someone in the room shouted out increments of $100,000, to the delight of auctioneer Henry Wyndham. The picture was bought by the Met in New York. The museum's Chairman of European Paintings, Keith Christiansen, said, "the minute I saw this painting, I nearly keeled over."
