Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra: 41 BC
Painted in 1883
Sold for $29,202,500
Masterpiece by Alma-Tadema sold for $29,2 million ‘The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra: 41 BC’, a 1883 painting by Victorian artist Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, has been sold for $29,202,500 (nearly six times the pre-sale high estimate) at Sotheby’s New York.]]>
May 7th 2011, source: Sotheby’s / theartwolf
Last November, a masterpiece by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (‘The Finding of Moses’) was offered at Sotheby’s with a pre-sale estimate of just $3-5 million, reflecting the art market’s relatively lack of interest for Victorian paintings. The work was sold for an impressive $35,922,500. Half a year later, another masterpiece by Alma-Tadema (‘The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra: 41 BC’), offered with the same pre-sale estimate of $3-5 million, has been sold for $29,202,500. And, which is even more shocking, it is the highest auction price of the week in New York, surpassing the prices achieved by important works by Monet or Picasso .
The canvas depicts one of the most storied moments in Roman-Egyptian history. According to Sotheby’s, Alma-Tadema “draws inspiration for his composition from William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, which was regularly staged in London’s theaters at the time.”
At the same auction, ‘Les Oranges’, a 1865 painting by William Bouguereau, was sold for $1,370,500, while a work by Joseph Pollet –‘Une Heure de la Nuit (An Hour of the Night)’– went for $722,500. The same price was achieved by Jean-Baptiste –Camille Corot, ‘L’Allée Verte’.
Related content
Masterpiece by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, sold for $36 million (November 2010)
Free Art Wallpapers (including Alma-Tadema’s ‘Unconscious Rivals’)
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