Mid-season Outdated Masters auctions in New York fetch almost $13m

With none seven-figure heaps on supply, Christie’s and Sotheby’s introduced in a collective $12.9m in New York with their mid-season Outdated Masters gross sales this week. Nonetheless, specialists at each public sale homes dismissed ideas that the Outdated Masters market could also be ailing.

Whereas Outdated Masters dominated the artwork marketplace for a long time, the class of European Outdated Masters made up simply 4% of the artwork market’s $67.8bn in gross sales in 2022, based on the newest Artwork Market report printed by Artwork Basel and UBS.

Christie’s New York introduced in $5m ($6.3m with charges) over two gross sales: a second public sale of a single-owner assortment of work amassed by Jacqui Eli Safra, a movie producer and descendent of the Swiss Lebanese banking household, that bought with out reserve for $2.6m ($3.2m with charges) and a seasonal Outdated Masters sale that fetched $2.4m ($3m with charges).

Essentially the most helpful work from the 74-lot Safra sale on 24 Might was Jean-Baptiste-Camile Corot’s portray of the agricultural French countryside, which bought for $280,000 ($352,800 with charges) in opposition to a $60,000 to $80,000 estimate. The second most beneficial portray from the Safra sale depicted Penelope, the spouse of Odysseus in Greek mythology, by feminine Neoclassical artist Angelica Kauffman and bought for $170,000 ($214,000 with charges).

Within the seasonal Outdated Masters sale on 25 Might, Christ earlier than Pilate by Giuseppe Vermiglio bought for $380,000 ($478,000 with charges), making it essentially the most helpful lot of the public sale.  However one of many extra shocking gross sales of the day was a portrait attributed to Frans Pourbus the Elder, which bought for $220,000 ($277,200 with charges) in opposition to a $50,000 to $80,000 estimate.

Whereas Outdated Masters’ share of the artwork market has decreased over the previous few a long time, Christie’s worldwide head of the Outdated Masters division François de Poortere says the 2 mid-season gross sales’ 88% sell-through fee by lot and 81% hammer by low estimate present the market remains to be wholesome. In January, Christie’s Outdated Masters gross sales introduced in $62.7m, together with $14.7m from the primary a part of the Safra sale. Throughout one other sale from varied homeowners in January, twin portraits of a mom and daughter by Francisco Goya fetched $14m ($16.4m with charges), setting a brand new public sale report for the Spanish grasp.

“We preserve proving it unsuitable,” De Poortere says of the notion that the Outdated Masters portion of the market is slipping. “Nice footage promote. Outdated Masters, whenever you discover the best materials, is an extremely buoyant market.” He added, “Freshness could be very key. The joy of an image that hasn’t been seen in the marketplace for a really, very very long time by no means tarnishes and folks like it.”

Sotheby’s two gross sales that included Outdated Masters grossed $6.6m with charges. The primary, an internet sale that lasted from 18 Might till 26 Might, introduced in $1m with charges, whereas an public sale of Outdated Grasp work and Nineteenth century European artwork on 26 Might fetched $5.4m with charges.

Essentially the most helpful lot at Sotheby’s was Jan Brueghel the Elder’s A village panorama with a market (1613), which fetched $889,000 with charges. Essentially the most thrilling sale might have been a portray of what’s mentioned to be Pompon, Marie Antoinette’s pet canine, by Jacques Barthélémy Delamarre. Provided with out reserve, 15 bidders pushed the portray’s ultimate worth to $279,400 with charges in opposition to a $3,000 to $5,000 estimate. That end result set a brand new public sale report for Delamarre’s work. (Sotheby’s additionally held a sale of Nineteenth-century artwork on 24 Might that grossed $1m, together with charges.)

“I really feel very pleased with the market and the outcomes,” says Christopher Apostle, Sotheby’s head of Outdated Masters in New York, who famous that the public sale home’s Fashionable sale earlier this month included an Outdated Grasp portray that did properly: Peter Paul Rubens’s Portrait of a Man as Mars (round 1620) fetched $22.5m ($26.1m with charges).

“What was attention-grabbing about it was getting it in entrance of a brand new viewers,” Apostle says. “I noticed those that weren’t patrons of Outdated Masters taking a look at it and being tempted or being amazed by the work.”

Apostle additionally is not involved concerning the artwork market’s urge for food for Outdated Grasp works. “Nice Outdated Masters are tougher to seek out than simply about another space. And if you happen to’ve bought one thing nice, you then completely have patrons for it at a really excessive degree,” Apostle says. He added that there are many Outdated Grasp works being bought on the non-public market.

“I am not so anxious about what our proportion of the worldwide market is as a result of we’re uncommon,” Apostle says.