Results: Christie's Old Masters and British Paintings Sale

As I briefly mentioned in yesterdays post, Christie's held its Old Master and British Paintings evening sale, which included the John Constable painting the Lock.  The Constable painting was the top selling lot, bringing a world record at auction for the artist at $35.2 million including buyers premium.  This was solidly in the middle range of the pre sale estimate of  $31.27 million to $39.1 million.

As for the sale in general, in totaled $133.45 million, offered 64 lots and sold 54, for a strong 84% sell through rate.  The sale sold a very impressive 96% by value. 5 of the top ten selling lot buyers were listed as anonymous (including the buyer of the Constable), two were listed as private buyers, two as European trade and one as Asian private.

Christie's reported on the sale

Christie’s evening auction of Old Master and British Paintings realised £85,057,100/ $133,454,590/ €105,725,975, the highest ever total for the category. The sale was 84% sold by lot and 96% by value. The top price was paid for The Lock, a masterpiece by John Constable (1776-1837) which realised £22,441,250/ $35,210,321/ €27,894,474 - a world record price for the artist at auction (estimate: £20 million to £25 million).

Richard Knight, co-Chairman of Old Master and British Paintings Department and Georgina Wilsenach, Head of Old Master & British Paintings at Christie’s London: “This evening we offered an auction of outstanding quality and saw the market for Old Masters continue to break boundaries. Having been entrusted with so many exceptional consignments, highlights of the auction were exhibited in Doha, Hong Kong, Moscow, Amsterdam, New York and then London, alongside masterpieces of Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary art. This evening’s sale went on to attract buyers from 22 countries in 4 continents, many of whom were new to this category, and some whom were new to Christie’s altogether.  We are thrilled that John Constable’s ‘The Lock’ sold for £22.4 million, setting a new world record price for the artist and equalling the record price for any Old Master painting sold at Christie’s.  We are also very pleased that the Pieter and Olga Dreesmann Collection realised a total of £25.3 million / $39.7 million / €31.5 million, with every work finding a buyer and led by Rembrandt’s ‘A Man in a Gorget and Cap’.”

The top price was paid for The Lock, a masterpiece by John Constable (1776-1837) which realised £22,441,250/ $35,210,321/ €27,894,474, setting a world record price for the artist at auction and equalling the record price for an Old Master Painting sold at Christie's* (estimate: £20 million to £25 million). Acquired by an anonymous buyer, it is one of six paintings from the artist’s most celebrated series of large scale works - The Stour Series - which also includes The Hay Wain, now in The National Gallery, London. From the Collection of Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza, it had been sold only once before since it was acquired from the artist and is remarkable for its excellent state of preservation.

Source: Christie's