To New York!
January 26 2016
Picture: BG
Greetings from Edinburgh airport, where 'Storm Frank' is causing a few delays. My cunning plan to get to New York in time to view the Old Master sales this afternoon won't quite work. Still, it's good to be going - for over the weekend it looked as if the sales might be put off, such was the snow, and I know a few people who had to cancel their trips. Time will tell whether this affects the sale.
In many ways, this week could be seen as a key moment for Old Masters. Certainly, with Christie's having moved their sale to the Spring, all the focus is on Sotheby's, and the first hurdle to clear - Wednesday's stand-alone sale of Alfred Taubman's Old Masters - is a high one. Already, Sotheby's has conceded that their $515m Taubman guarantee gamble won't pay off, so there will be many eyes watching to see how the last instalment of his collection does. That said, Sotheby's can't have spared much effort in pulling together what looks to be a strong series of catalogues, with works by the likes of Raphael, Turner, Rubens, Van Dyck, and Canaletto all coming up over the next few days. And of course, the major event of the week will be the $25m-$25m Gentileschi.
I've a busy schedule, so blogging over the next few days will be jet-lag dependent I'm afraid. If any posts appear over the next few hours, it'll be because the movie selection on United (which, amazingly, has Wi-Fi in the sky better than my BT one at home) hasn't improved.
Update - the movies were good: Bridge of Spies, and The Martian.
