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LONDON.- Tonight in London before a lively
saleroom, Sotheby’s sales of Old Master Paintings and Renaissance & Baroque
Masterworks from the Collection of Barbara Piasecka Johnson brought a combined
total of £36,022,625/ $57,917,177/ €41,645,761, a strong figure
comfortably within the pre-sale expectations for the evening of
£29,222,500-42,470.000. The Old Master Paintings Evening Sale made an individual
total of £26,134,050/ $42,018,326/ €30,213,578, within the pre-sale estimate of
£24,010,000-34,760,000, and achieved solid sell-through rates of 69% by
lot and 82% by value.
The single-owner sale of property from the collection of Barbara Piasecka
Johnson - the renowned art connoisseur, humanitarian and philanthropist and the
wife of the late J. Seward Johnson Sr, one of the co-founders of the Johnson
& Johnson medical and pharmaceutical firm – far exceeded expectations,
realising £9,888,575/ $15,898,851/ €11,432,183 above its estimate of
£5,212,500-7,710,000, and was 79% sold by lot and 95% sold by value. This
single-owner sale continues tomorrow with a further 140 lots being offered in
the dedicated Barbara Piasecka Johnson Day sale (est: £461,370-688,270).
The top prices of the Old Master Paintings Evening Sale
were:
- Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s finest version of The
Massacre of the Innocents (lot 13) - the renowned composition devised by his
father - came to the market this evening in fine original condition. It saw
competition from four bidders and became the top-selling lot of the evening when
it sold to an anonymous collector for £4,633,250/ $7,449,339/ €5,456,501, well
in excess of the estimate of £2.5-3.5 million. This represents the
second-highest price ever achieved for a work by Pieter Brueghel the Younger at
auction.
- Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes’s important
equestrian portrait of Don Manuel Godoy, Duke of Alcudia (lot 47), sold for
£2,617,250/ $4,208,015/ €3,025,803, against an estimate of £2.5-3.5 million. The
portrait - with its magical Goya atmosphere and signature Goya sky - ranks among
the most important paintings by the Spanish artist ever to come to auction and
the price it achieved tonight represents one of the highest prices ever
established for a work by him at auction.
- Sir Anthony van Dyck
was represented in the sale by a three-quarter-length portrait of Endymion
Porter, the diplomat, connoisseur and courtier to Charles I who was a close
friend and confidante of van Dyck. The portrait (lot 11) attracted competition
from three telephone bidders and eventually sold for £2,057,250/ $3,307,647/
€2,378,387, handsomely above the pre-sale estimate of £1-1.5 million. Never
offered at auction before, the painting had descended through the same family
collection since 1798. It was included in the Van Dyck and Britain exhibition at
Tate Britain earlier this year.
- Paintings by British masters also
performed well tonight. A Portrait of Baron de Robeck Riding A Bay Hunter by
George Stubbs (lot 44) fetched just over £2 million/ $3.3 million/ €2.4 million
while J.M.W. Turner’s Virginia Water (lot 48), which had descended through the
same family collection since 1913 and had never appeared at auction before, made
£881,250, comfortably in excess of its pre-sale expectations of
£500,000-700,000.
Star lots tonight:
 Jusepe
de Ribera, called Lo Spagnoletto’s dramatic Prometheus became the top selling
lot of the collection. The subject of a lengthy bidding battle between at least
seven potential buyers, it soared above expectations to sell for £3,849,250/
$6,188,824/ €4,450,118 – more than three times the pre-sale high estimate (est:
£800,000-1,200,000) - and establishing a new auction record for a work by Ribera
by a significant margin. The painting (lot 28), a masterpiece of High Baroque
art, represents one of the most important rediscoveries and additions to
Ribera’s work in recent years and is also of significance given that it is
arguably his first rendering of a mythological subject as well as a prime
example of his terribilità. - A full length portrait of a nobleman,
presumed to be Jean de Dinteville in the guise of St George before a slain
dragon and long attributed to Francesco Primaticcio, was also strongly competed
for by at least four bidders. Estimated at £200,000-300,000, the large-scale
portrait (lot 16) - a masterpiece of 16th century portraiture - eventually sold
to a collector for £769,250/ $1,236,800/ €889,330, more than double its
estimate.
- Old Master Sculpture also performed well and a
spectacular white marble bust of an ancient hero by Baccio Bandinelli, dating
from the mid-16th century, sold for £657,250/ $1,056,727/ €759,847, within the
pre-sale expectations of £500,000-800,000. The colossal piece (lot 12) ranks
among the most important Florentine sculptures of the Cinquecento to be offered
on the market in recent years and the price realised set a new auction record
for the sculptor.
- Among the notable furniture highlights was a
near pair of Roman lapis lazuli and pietre dure mounted pewter inlaid ebony
cabinets (lot 17), dating from the second half of the 17th century, which sold
for £211,250/ $349,295/ €251,163, above the estimate of
£120,000-180,000.
- Furthermore, three panels by Francesco
Primaticcio, dating from circa 1350 (lots 20, 21 and 22) all achieved prices in
excess of their estimates and also the previous auction record for the artist.
With a combined estimate of £1,200,000-1,800,000 (each estimated at
£400,000-600,000), the group achieved a combined total of £2,699,750. Lot 21 –
the panel depicting Saint Bernardo degli Uberti – established the highest prices
of the group, setting the new record for the artist when it sold for £937,250.
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