TSAROUCHIS TRIUMPHS AT BONHAMS 2.4 MILLION EURO GREEK ART SALE Our Coverage Sponsored by Stribling and Associates
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Works by the leading painter of the ‘30s generation of Greek artists, Yiannis Tsarouchis, attracted strong bidding at Bonhams sale of Greek Art in London last week. All six Tsarouchis canvasses were sold for a combined total of €520,000. The sale as a whole made €2,400,000.
Among the highlights were:
Torso, painted by Tsarouchis in 1975. Depicting the clothed torso of a young Greek soldier the painting sold for €182,700 against a pre-sale estimate of €36,000-59,000.
Erotokritos - the subject of a famous and well loved 18th century Cretan poetic romance extolling the virtues of love, honour, friendship and courage – made €121,000, exceeding its pre-sale estimate of €12,000-18,000. In the words of the critic Kapetanakis, “What's remarkable is that Tsarouchis managed, with the wisdom of his art, to elevate a model posing in his studio into a symbol of the Modern Greek spirit."
At the Grocer’s, which takes the simple exterior of a humble shop as a starting point for an examination of the nature of the inner world of Greekness, was bought for €82,000. The painting is regarded as one of the artist’s signature works prompting the poet A. Embeirikos to write,” when one looks at Tsarouchis’s work, one has the immediate impression of looking at Greek painting par excellence.”
Bonhams Greek Art specialist, Olympia Pappa, commented:”This sale seems to indicate some return of stability to the market after a period of uncertainty. It was also notable for the number of non-Greek buyers, suggesting that Greek art is now gaining a wider, international reputation.”
Paintings by other major Greek artists also sold well. A major work by the naive painter Theofilos Hadjimichail, for example, entitled Ulysses brings Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon to the High Priest Kalhas for her to be sacrificed to the God Apollo made €161,000.
City on a Hill by Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, one of a series of works from the first half of the 1960s where the artist depicted imaginary towns was sold for €175,500 and The Boat by the same artist, painted in Paris in the early 1930s made €118,000
The Meadow (Tinos) by Nikolaos Lytras – considered to be among his finest works – made €67,400 and Midas’s Secret by Nikos Engonopoulos, which depicts the legends surrounding the pleasure-seeking but impetuous King Midas, sold for £60,000.
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son & Neale. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street and Knightsbridge; and a further three in the UK regions and Scotland. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Carmel, New York and Connecticut in the USA; and Germany, France, Monaco, Hong Kong and Australia. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 60 specialist areas. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments go to www.bonhams.com.
