'The market for Old Masters has never been stronger'
July 3 2013
Video: Christie's
So says the commentary for Christie's video above, showing highlights of the Old Master sale last night here in London. Sadly, the prices realised didn't quite prove the theory right. The total raised, including buyer's premium, was £23,852,300. In the same sale last year, the total was £85m.
So what happened? There were some fine pictures, the room was packed, the exhibition was well laid out, and the catalogue was first-class (they're getting really good these days). The problem was, I suspect, the high estimates. The £7m-£10m Jan Steen, for example, failed to elicit a single bid. The estimate was, I presume, arrived at on the back of Sotheby's record Steen price of £5.6m, realised last year for 'The Prayer Before the Meal'. However, the Prayer picture was, I believe, bought by a pre-sale guarantor, so it's not certain that the £5.6m figure is truly representative of Steen's 'value'. I'm afraid I thought the Christie's Steen rather an unappealing thing. Other buy-ins included a £1.5m-£2m Lucas Cranach the Elder of Cardinal Albrecht von Brandenburg, a pair of Wright of Derby landscapes at £500k-£700k, and a £3m-£5m Poussin of Hannibal on his Elephant.
The sale total was significantly helped by a Canaletto making £8.46m. A fine Rubens head study made £1.74m, which was a little low I thought for such a well painted image. Interestingly, Van Dyck head studies seem to be making much more than Rubens' examples at the moment. Something to do, I suspect, with Van Dyck being a better portraitist than Rubens, and his heads (especially in study form) therefore having a more immediate, modern feel to them.
On a night of fairly lacklustre bidding, it fell to our own British portraitists to shatter the estimate barrier - a Thomas Lawrence of Lady Berkeley made £901k against a £400k-£600k estimate, while George Romney's beautiful Portrait of Elizabeth Ramus made £541k against a (too low) estimate of £150k-£200k. The buyer of the Romney was so keen to have it that they unilaterally increased the bidding increments by £50,000. My kind of client.
It'll be interesting to see what tonight's Sotheby's sale makes. Last time round, in December, Sotheby's whupped Christie's with a total of £59m vs £11.2m.
Update - Christie's press release says:
Last night’s sale of Old Master & British Paintings was led by Canaletto’s The Molo, Venice, from the Bacino di San Marco, doubling its presale estimate to realise £8,461,875 / $12,870,512 / €9,841,161.
The sale saw strong prices for paintings from all schools, particularly Italian, Flemish and British, while six new artist world records were achieved.
With participation from Asia, the Middle East, South America and Russia as well as Europe and North America, the sale total of £23,852,300 / $36,279,348 / €27,740,225 reflects the continued global interest in Old Master Paintings.
Update II - a reader reminds me that I made a rash prediction on the Steen price, and writes:
I am happy to see that the buyers kept their paddles down so you wont have to eat your trousers...
