'M*rde'
October 4 2015
Picture: Getty
Double disappointment yesterday at AHN towers, with two potential sleepers slipping the net. The first was a rather damaged possible Rubens sketch, which I didn't bid very strongly on. It might have had nothing to do with Rubens at all, and as I've mentioned here before optimism is an art dealer's worst enemy. But it's also the thing that drives you on.
The second was a composition that recorded a lost work by Giorgione. Was it by Giorgione? I doubt it very much. But the annoying thing was I didn't get a chance even to dream - the auction house hung up the phone line just as the bidding got under way. They made no attempt to call back, and wouldn't answer the phone when I called. Cases like that make you wonder if there's something awry going on.
That said, it's a moot point whether it's ever worth going to sleepers in France. Under French law, a vendor can cancel a sale if a picture was incorrectly catalogued, or sue the buyer for the difference in value - and what is more they have a twenty year window in which to do so. Pehaps it was just as well the auction house today was useless. Bof.
