Record prices were achieved at Christie’s auction of old masters and British paintings in London on Dec. 6. The evening auction reached close to $38 million overall with 73 percent of the works selling above their pre-sale estimate.
The records were made, in part, due to the scarcity of fresh new works coming to the market, with buyers competing over what was available.
Art consignors in this category are tending to hold onto their works during the recession. The vendors are doing their best to entice them to sell with overly high sale estimations, many of which were not met at Old Masters Week this month for Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Bonhams.
The few world-record prices at Christie’s were a great result, considering that many of the 36 works were fairly unimportant and over-estimated. Sotheby’s, with its meager 38 works, had less luck securing new-to-market works for its evening sale—likewise for Bonhams.
“The Battle Between Carnival and Lent,” by Pieter Brueghel II, sold at Christie’s for a world-record price of $10.8 million, doubling the pre-sale estimate of between $5 million and $7 million.
Christie’s described the painting as one of the most recognizable from the Brueghelian canon, as it exemplifies the unique blend of storytelling, acute characterization, and riotous anecdotal detail that has endeared the work of the Brueghels to generations of art lovers.
Christie’s sold one of the highest-priced paintings to an online bidder and was surprised to see an increase in Asian buyers for the genre.
Up for auction for the first time in 150 years, “Dutch Men-o-War and Other Shipping in a Calm,” by Willem van de Velde II, sold for $9 million, a world record for this artist.
The painting was in exceptionally good condition. Ever since it was first documented in 1778 at the Servad sale in Amsterdam, the painting has received unanimous acclaim, according to Christie’s, for its technical excellence, and the serene harmony of its composition.
“An Old Man at a Casement,” 1646, by Govaert Flinck, sold for $3.6 million, another world-record price for the artist at auction.
Christie’s describes the painting as a rediscovered treasure once acquired by Catherine the Great of Russia as part of one of the greatest collection-building campaigns in history. “An Old Man at a Casement” is considered one of Flinck’s most powerful paintings. Flinck trained in Rembrandt’s workshop in the 1630s.
As explained in a recent New York Times article, for the old masters market to stay strong, collectors need to sell their works. If the auction houses are forced to cut down from two sales a year to one, market momentum will slow because a certain pace is needed to maintain interest and bidders.
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