$109.2 Million Achieved at Sotheby's Old Masters Week Auctions in New York Thus Far
otheby’s 2011 Old Masters Week auctions in New York have achieved an outstanding $109.2 million thus far, with one auction remaining tomorrow morning at 10am. Today’s sale of Important Old Master Paintings & Sculpturebrought $90,626,878, just shy of the high estimate of $91.8 million. The sale was led by the Renaissance master Titian’s A Sacra Conversazione: The Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria,which sold for $16.9 million to a European private collector and broke a 20-year record for the artist at auction.
The sale set 16 artist records in total, and saw incredible results for important works by Claude-Joseph Vernet, Joachim Wtewael and Gerrit Dou. Yesterday’s morning sale of Old Master Drawings saw its cover lot, Perino del Vaga’s Jupiter and Juno, sell to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for $782,500, while the evening sale of Important Old Master & 19th Century Paintings from the Collection of Jacob Elie Safra set seven new artist records.
“Following a dominant year in the field of Old Master Paintings in 2010, Sotheby’s is again off to a remarkable start,” said George Wachter, Co-Chairman of Sotheby’s Old Master Paintings Department Worldwide. “Today’s exceptional total of $90.6 million included historic world-record prices set for Titian, Vernet, Brueghel, Wtewael, Dou, Van Vliet and Perino, works that in many cases were sought-after by multiple bidders. In our morning session, which brought $78.6 million and exceeded its pre-sale estimate, interest came from all over the world and all over the field - the trade, private collectors and institutions. Clearly, this is a very strong market, particularly for masterworks.”
