Quality Coming to Market

Over the past year there have been many different rationales and explanations for poor auction results, from declining economic conditions to a lack of quality in auction catalogs.

Here we have some news of quality coming to auction in the Old Master market. Over the past year old master sales were typically soft, but that segment was not effected nearly as much as contemporary and modern art sales. In any event, there was much discussion that prices were low due to the economy, market perceptions, and fresh to market quality art not finding its way to the large auction houses as in the past. Part of this was due to the change in major auction house policy of not offering guarantees (which has been covered in detail on the AW Post in the past).

Bloomberg is reporting that the family which owns the Glyndebourn Oprea House in England will be selling a 17th century old master by Italian artist Domenichino entitled “St. John the Evangelist”. Christies' has the consignment, and the estimate is $16.5 million.

I realize expectations and projections have recently lacked any sort of consistency, but perhaps this is an indication the market may truly have hit bottom and is a sign that the art market is starting to become more consistent and balanced.

Scott Reyburn of Bloomberg reports

“This was a famous picture in the 18th century,” Paul Raison, Christie’s London-based head of Old Masters, said in an interview. “It was mentioned in several Grand Tour guide books and it was copied by Fragonard. It definitely comes in the masterpiece category.”
The work is the most valuable Old Master painting offered by Christie’s since Raphael’s “Portrait of Lorenzo de Medici,” which was expected to sell for between 10 million pounds and 15 million pounds in July 2007. It was bought by a telephone bidder for 18.5 million pounds with fees.
The 9-foot-high Domenichino canvas, showing the author of one of the four Gospels poised over books supported by two angels, was painted in the late 1620s by the Bolognese artist. It will be offered in Christie’s Dec. 8 sale of Old Masters and 19th-century art.

Country Opera

The painting has been owned for over 100 years by the Christie family of Glyndebourne, East Sussex, and is being offered by a trust to diversify the family’s assets, said the auction house. John Christie (1882-1962) was the founder of the countryside opera festival.

In the early 17th century, the painting was owned by Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani, an Italian collector who owned as many as 12 works by Caravaggio. It was included in the “Treasure Houses of Great Britain” exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., in 1986.

“That might have been the last time it was cleaned,” said Raison, aware that Old Master collectors are reluctant to buy works that have been restored. “The colors are still very fresh. It’s not particularly dirty, though we did have to get rid of a bit of bird dropping that was on the canvas.”

To read the full article, click HERE.