Risk Brings Rewards in Old Masters Sales

By Judd Tully
Published: January 29, 2009

NEW YORK—Even with results falling well below pre-sale estimates and long patches of no-bid buy-ins, the decidedly conservative Old Masters market have proven there’s still serious money being spent on standout artworks with reasonable estimates.
The results from this week’s sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s in New York revealed a sharp contrast between the two houses, with Sotheby’s offering more ambitious and expensive works than its archrival, a strategy that seemed to succeed for a decidedly cautious clientele.
Provenance also played a big role in the results, as evidenced by the multi-bid action on property from the collection of Julius Held, the celebrated Rubens and Rembrandt scholar who died in 2002.
The Scholar's Eye: Property from the Julius Held Collection, at Christie's, January 27At the Held sale, which kicked off Old Masters week on January 27, impressive results were earned by Joachim Beuckelaer’s A Market Scene (1562), an oil on panel groaning with game and vegetables, which shot to $542,500 (est. $200–300,000); and Hendrik van der Borcht’s loose-leaf-page-sized A Collection of Ancient Objects, which fetched $182,500 (est. $30–50,000).
Even attributed works not bearing a signature found interest. The dashing Portrait of Edward Wortley, Lord Montagu, dressed as an Arab sheik — an ovular painting attributed to George Romney — shot to $46,250 (est. $3,000–5,000). The work last sold at London in 1927 for 23 guineas, a price currency sleuths may be interested in exploring.
Held’s taste was eclectic, and a few of the non–Old Master lots in the bunch also elicited strong interest, especially the striking Lovis Corinth Self Portrait with a Black Hat from 1912, which shot past its high estimate to earn $254,500 (est. $40–60,000).
Overall, the sale’s 68 lots earned $2,546,875 and scored buy-in rates of 15 percent by lot and 9 percent by value. The sale’s second part, offering more decorative, lower-value works, is scheduled for January 30.
Christie’s Important Old Master Paintings, January 28Overall, Christie’s two-session (and two-catalogue) sale on January 28 delivered a skimpy $14,189,500 for the 210 lots offered (est. $21,690,500-29,682,500), with 35 percent unsold by lot and 42 percent unsold by value.
The morning session underscored the hunger for works judged to be outstanding, especially if the estimates were low and without reserve. The Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist by the 15th-century artist known as the Master of the Fiesole Epiphany, in tempera and gold on panel made $128,500 (est. $40–60,000), and Michelangelo Di Pietro Mencherini’s 16th-century Saint Jerome and Saint Joseph with a Donor, in tempera and oil on panel soared to $230,500 (est. $60–80,000).
Provenance proved its mettle again with the successful sale of property from the collection of Chicagoans William and Eleanor Wood Prince. A striking Circle of Jean Fouquet Portrait of Albertus Delantiere, Secretary to Navarre from 1471 sold to a telephone bidder for $206,500 (est. $30–50,000), and a pretty After Leonardo da Vinci The Madonna of the Yarnwinder in oil on panel went to another telephone bidder for $152,500 (est. $20–30,000).
Some private buyers were able to score real bargains. A dramatic nautical scene by Francis Holman, A Royal Navy 14-Gun Brig Accepting the Surrender of a Dutch East Indiaman from 1781, sold for a trim $30,000 (est. $50–70,000).
“It’s going back to England,” said the successful bidder as he exited the salesroom, beaming alongside his wife. He declined to identify himself.
Another U.K. private buyer who declined to identify himself nabbed John Constable’s A View of Salisbury, an almost page-sized oil on paper laid down on canvas for $1,082,500 (est. $500-800,000). The painting was one of only three works in the sale to exceed $1 million.
Members of the trade were also on hand, hunting for inventory. Eagle-eyed Brussels and Paris dealer Georges de Jonckheere bought Portrait of a Man, Aged 25, Half-Length, in a Black Coat and Hat by the Master of the Andreas Hertwig Portrait for $134,500 (est. $70–100,000).
“The condition (of the painting) is perfect,” said De Jonckheere, moments after his acquisition. “I’m very pleased. I see a lot of new collectors here. The Old Master market is more conservative [than the contemporary market] and I think it is holding its own.”
De Jonckheere also snared Francesco Guardi’s tiny pair of Venetian views — The Isola della Beata Vergine del Rosario and The Isola di S. Servolo — for $ 80,500 (est. $30–50,000). He said he plans to take the pictures to the Old Master–heavy TEFAF fair in Maastricht in March.
The sale’s only big drama occurred during bidding for the stunning and rare cover lot, Federico Barocci’s Head of Saint John the Evangelist, an oil study for The Entombment of Christ in the church of Santa Croce, in Senigallia, Italy. The work sold to seasoned London dealer Jean-Luc Baroni for $1,762,500 (est. $400–600,000).
“I bought it for a client,” said Baroni. “The condition is fantastic; it looks untouched. It’s incredible that it reached us in this condition.”
“I honestly think the estimate was extremely low,” he continued. “Frankly, at that price, I think we got very lucky.”
Baroni was also busy at Sotheby’s Old Master Drawings session that same morning, when a colleague from the gallery outgunned a lone telephone bidder a splendid work by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, A Hunter with His Dog in a Landscape in irongall ink from circa 1812–20, which fetched $698,500 (est. $600-800,000). “When people are more positive, it will be highly desirable,” noted the dealer, who said he bought the drawing for stock.
The Old Master Drawings session of 162 lots made a total of $2,313,189, with top-heavy buy-in rates of 48 percent and 25 percent by value.
Sotheby’s Important Old Master Paintings and Sculpture, January 29The action had a different feel the following day at Sotheby’s, where the morning session of Important Old Master Paintings realized $57,647,000 for the 92 lots offered, with buy-in rates of 39.5 percent by lot and 37 percent by value. The pre-sale estimate was $74,380,000–103,020,000.
Despite falling short of those numbers, Sotheby’s scored some big results, as all of its top 10 lots earned over $1 million, including a highly anticipated J. M.W. Turner oil, The Temple of Jupiter Panellenius Restored, on offer from veteran New York dealer Richard Feigen.
Though the painting was not designated as “guaranteed,” auctioneer Henry Wyndham announced it carried an irrevocable bid, meaning someone had pledged a bid high enough to meet the reserve.
In any case, two bidders drove the hammer price to $11.5 million, or $12,962,500 with the buyer’s premium (est. $12-16 million).
Wyndham contributed some tension-breaking humor, mistakenly announcing the opening bid at £9 million, causing guffaws in the room.
Feigen, who paid £648,000 when he acquired the painting at Christie’s London in 1982, said he was sad to see it go.
Feigen also played a significant role — as the underbidder — in the seesaw competition for the sale’s restituted cover lot, Hendrick Ter Brugghen’s Bagpipe Player in Profile. The 1624 painting was auctioned by the Nazis in a forced sale in Berlin in November 1938 and restituted to the heirs of Herbert von Klemperer in July 2008.
At Sotheby’s it sold to London dealer Johnny van Haeften for a record $10,162,500 (est. $4–6 million).
“It didn’t have a price before the sale, because there was nothing to compare it with,” said van Haeften after the sale. “It was sort of a last-chance saloon.”
Asked about the high price, he quipped, “Compare it to a Freud or Bacon portrait; it’s a gift.”
Van Haeften said the work wouldn’t be on his stand in Maastricht because “it’s too early to bring it out again.” He added that the work would require a gentle cleaning.
If anyone doubts there’s little juice left in this old timers’ market, note the intense heat generated for two very different pictures, which both sold for many times their estimates: Francois Boucher’s The Muse Erato, originally painted for the Marquise de Pompadour, which sold for $1,314,500 (est. $300–500,000) after last selling at Christie’s New York in January 1991 for $330,000; and Pierre Subleyras’s signed and dated sleeper Portrait of Pope Benedict XIV from 1746, which sold to New York dealer Adam Williams for $986,500 (est. $100–150,000).