2024 December Old Master Sales
What a difference a Botticelli makes! The top lot of the December London Old Masters sale week was a Madonna and Child fully catalogued by Sotheby’s as a work by Sandro Botticelli (image above). It sold for 9,960,000 GBP (including premium) against an estimate of 2-3 million pounds. The buyer and underbidder were both on the phone with New York-based specialists. That price was essentially the difference between the Sotheby’s and Christie’s evening sale totals—respectively 24,164,000 GBP and 13,990,200 GBP. The success of both sales, over 80% of the works were sold, was to some extent driven by the renewed activity of the Antwerp-based Phoebus Foundation which was actively buying Flemish paintings at both houses, coming away with 9 lots. Despite the good sell-through rate, the cupboard felt bare: a grand total of 52 lots (of which 6 were 19th century or prints) offered by both houses makes it the smallest December sale by volume in recent memory.
There were some interesting surprises. Eighteenth-century painting, after years in the doldrums, is clearly enjoying something of a revival. This is perhaps an extension from the recent boom in the French eighteenth-century market. Notable examples include: Philosopher Reading by Fragonard sold for 7.7 million EUR (Enchère Champagne, Épernay, 26 June 2021), The Basket of Wild Strawberries by Chardin sold for 24.4 million EUR (Artcurial, Paris, 23 March 2022), The Sacrifice to the Minotaur by Fragonard sold for 5.72 million EUR (Artcurial, Paris, 22 November 2023), A Young Girl Wearing a Hat by Fragonard sold for 4 million EUR (Boisgirard, Paris, 21 December 2023), Girl with a Dead Bird by Greuze sold for $2,470,000 (Christie’s, New York, 17 April 2024), and The Cut Melon by Chardin sold for 26,730,000 EUR (Christie’s, Paris, 16 June 2024). The trend continued this week for eighteenth-century artists of other national schools. Two magnificent Venetian views by Michele Marieschi sold at Christie’s for 1,129,000 GBP (including premium) against a low estimate of 600,000 GBP; a superb uncleaned painting by Giambattista Tiepolo of Guilty Punchinello, one of two known paintings of this subject by the artist, was bought by the Louvre against the trade for a total of 2,460,000 GBP, also at Christie’s; a View of the Bacino, Venice by Antonio Joli was fought out by four competitors in the sale room at Sotheby’s, eventually selling for 360,000 GBP against a low estimate of 80,000 GBP; a marvelous small Portrait of a Spanish Pointer by George Stubbs sold for 1,800,000 GBP also at Sotheby’s. Meanwhile, across the street at Bonham’s a superlative pair of portraits of female street vendors by the Johann Zoffany sold for 991,000 GBP (including premium) against a low estimate of 300,000 GBP.
The market continues to be fueled by ‘name’ and image. The runaway success of the Botticelli confirms the former. One of the most striking images in either sale was the Portrait of Sir Thomas Wyatt (son of the famous sonneteer) painted after an original by Holbein in the collection of the Louvre Abu Dhabi. Though dated through dendrochronology to after Holbein’s death, it sold for 327,600 GBP against a 40,000 GBP low estimate. The striking image which seemed to summon the fate of beheading which befell young Wyatt, and the King Charles I provenance doubtless encouraged such spirited bidding.❖