Sotheby's London Evening Sale
July 3 2024
Picture: Sotheby's
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Sotheby's London Old Master & 19th Century Paintings Evening Auction realised a total of £12,366,000 (inc. fees) with 81.25% of lots sold / 76.48% including withdrawn lots.
As far as the website indicated, the Botticelli (pictured), Eustache Le Sueur, Vanvitellis and Corot all had irrevocable bids.
Here are my live posts on the top lots of the sale:
Update - And we're off. Lots 14 (pair of Canalettos) and 27 (Wright of Derby) have been withdrawn.
Update 2 - A good start, Lots 1 & 2 have performed well.
Update 3 - The Met de Bles and Rubens landscape failed to find a winning bid with its £600k - £800k estimate.
Update 4 - The Botticelli and Studio Virgin and Child hammered down at £2,850,000 with Alex Bell on the phone over its £3m - £5m estimate. This is £3,420,000 including fees.
Update 5 - Jacques Jordaens' Head of a Girl hammers down at £300,000 over its £150,000 - £200,000 estimate. This is £360,000 including fees.
Update 6 - The trio of views by Vanvitelli and Bellotto break past their low estimates and sell, as do the large Tiepolos.
Update 7 - British pictures haven't had much luck until David Roberts' Venetian view which hammered down at £330,000 to a bidder in the room over its £60k - £80k estimate. This is £396,000 including fees.
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This season's results indicate that both auction houses have equalled each other in pricing strategies to help sell more pictures. For example, the London Old Master departments at both Sotheby's and Christie's have sold near to 20% more of their paintings offered than their New York counterparts managed to in January. This is surely good for both their clients and the market as a whole.
When it comes to values (£43.59m at Christie's compared to £12.36m at Sotheby's), there was one clear winner. This is of course helped by the appearance of several top tier works from British aristocratic collections, coupled with an important rediscovery (one which warranted a Getty acquisition) and several 'fresh to market' lots which soared past their estimates. It could be argued that Sotheby's had a more varied offering, however, this current market appears to be driven by new and fresh consignments which haven't appeared at sale in the past 15 years or so. After Christie's recent wins in both Paris and London, we'll have to wait and see what happens in the ever-buoyant New York sales in November 2024 and January 2025.
