Sotheby's to Combine Auctions

Carol Vogel of the NY Times recently had a short post in her Inside Art column on the combining of sales by the major auction houses in order to reduce expenses. Christie's recently merged their 19th century European and old master sales, now Sotheby's will hold a June 4th combined old master and antiquities sale. The Inside Art post was rather short, so I cut and pasted.

Vogel reports Christie’s announced in January that as part of its downsizing it would merge its 19th-century European art, old master paintings, old master drawings and British drawings into one department. Many in the art world speculated that it was only a matter of time before Sotheby’s would follow.

But Sotheby’s is holding fast, keeping these departments separate while not ruling out the occasional collaboration. Next month its old master paintings and antiquities departments are holding a joint sale for the first time.

The sale, “Old Master Painting, European Sculpture and Antiquities,” will take place on June 4 in New York. Included in the sale will be three paintings being sold by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art — a Pieter de Hooch, a Gerard ter Borch and a Rubens — as well as antiquities like a monumental granite head of the Egyptian ruler King Nectanebo II estimated at $600,000 to $900,000 and an Egyptian portrait of a mummy painted on wood and dating from the fourth century A.D. estimated at $150,000 to $250,000.

“For the last few years we have exhibited our works together,” said George Wachter, director of Sotheby’s old master paintings department worldwide. “And since we both decided to cut back on the number of works we will sell this season, we thought it might be interesting to put the two sales together.”