Old Masters

As I mentioned in my post after the Christie's "successful" Old Master sale a week ago or so, a very large portion of the record breaking sale were concentrated in the top few lots.  Click HERE to read that AW post.  Colin Gleadell of the London Telegraph writes a similar article.  Gleadell's London Telegraph, like my post states on the surface the results look impressive.  But when looking deeper, and at the average quality art in the sales, the results were not strong.  In fact, Gleadell reports that nearly 42% of some sales during the Old Master auctions were bought in. He also rationalizes that the quality of middle market are was not strong, as owners wait for the market to rebound and gain momentum.  In any event the article and commentary is interesting, and I am especially pleased as it matches what I reported right after the sales.


Gleadell reports

But a closer reading of the sales shows that this was a top-heavy week, with just four lots (the three records above and another, less widely reported £9.2 million record for Domenichino's St John the Evangelist from Glyndebourne), out of the 1,000-plus works on offer, accounting for two thirds of the proceeds. Among the run-of-the-mill Old Masters, there was much less to celebrate, with unsold rates reaching an unseasonably high 42 per cent in some sales.

This was partly because the supply of good, middle-market pictures was thinner than usual, with owners waiting to see evidence of market recovery, and partly because the trade, which usually mops up a lot of these sales, has less cash to spend. On top of that, credit terms for buyers have become stricter. Christie's will not release goods to even its best clients, unless they have been paid for.

London dealer Johnny Van Haeften is usually one of the biggest buyers of 17th-century Dutch and Flemish paintings, but he felt that there weren't many good pictures on offer, and was less active than usual. His gallery had a good week, selling a Jan Lievens portrait for £3.6 million, as well as flower paintings by Jan Davidsz de Heem and Jan Brueghel for £2 million and £2.5 million respectively. But at Christie's, he bought only two works, and at Sotheby's, just one, having watched a rare and appealing portrait of a working girl holding a Brazilian basket of plums by the Dutch classical artist Caesar Boëtius van Everdingen soar above its £50,000 estimate, and above his £450,000 bid, before selling for a record £1.2 million.

To read the full Telegraph article, click HERE.