London Old Master sales
July 7 2022
Picture: Christie's
I was hoping to see the Old Master sales in London, but couldn't get there, thanks to the 'rona. But I watched them online, alongside rolling news coverage of Boris Johnson's pleasingly agonising demise. Sotheby's evening sale made only £7m, which isn't far off some day sale totals. The top lot was a £1.18m Brueghel the Younger. But we should remember they hived off several strong pictures for their Jubilee sale, including; a £730k Constable cloud study, a £2.3m Bonington, and a £1.9m Millais. So we can bump Sotheby's overall OMP total up to about £13m. They also sold a fine Canaletto drawing for £400k. Their total suffered a bit from the large Van de Velde not selling at £4m-£6m. In 2012, it made £5.3m. In Sotheby's Day sale, the lovely David Martin self-portrait I highlighted a few weeks ago made £113k, against an estimate of £20k-£30k.
Before anyone says, 'ha - Old Masters are sinking!', Christie's sold their fine Van Dyck Portrait of a Monk (above) for £3.38m. In 2011 it made £713k. Christie's total was £28m. Other top lots included a £9.4m Cranach the Elder Nymph, and a Rembrandt print made £1.4m. A copy of a Caravaggio's Cardsharps made £264k - this is the picture which was subject of a £6m lawsuit over claims it was by Caravaggio himself. A £3m-£4m Turner of Heidelberg, with a Rainbow bought in. A picture which soared away, and which looks like one of those pictures which might reset the market, was a Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger Portrait of a Lady, at £567k.
