Sotheby's Victorian Art Sale a Success

ArtInfo is reporting some positive news on the recent Sotheby's Victorian Art Sale, held on November 19th. The positives are the sale brought in $6.8 million with fees against a low estimate of $7.3 million without fees. If you recall some of the past sales contemporary and impressionist sales were only bring about 50% of the low estimate. Additionally, 88 percent of the lots sold, with fourteen artist records being set.

Can we consider the sale a huge success, probably not, but at least it is a positive sign, and we have not had many of those recently. I understand the recent Greek sales were also successful. Although the news is good, the sales volume generated from the Victorian Art Sale are probably to small to have a positive effect on the bottom line of Sotheby's for the 4th quarter.

The ArtInfo article was very short, so I just cut and pasted.

LONDON—The Victorian art market scored a boost yesterday as the collection of the late U.K. diplomat David Scott earned a total of £4.6 million ($6.8 million) at Sotheby’s London. Although the 242-lot sale missed its pre-sale estimate of £5 million, a healthy 88 percent of lots were sold, and dealers reported that it was a better result than at other recent Victorian art sales. Fourteen artist records were set, including for the evening’s top lot, Sophie Anderson's oil No Walk Today from the 1850s, which Scott purchased in 1926. The work, which carried an estimate of £600–800,000, sold for £1 million. Scott, who died in 1986 at the age of 99, amassed his collection over several decades. London dealer Rupert Maas once described it as “the finest collection of Victorian narrative paintings left in private hands.”