Pompeo Girolamo Batoni
Susanna and the elders
Sold for $11,394,500 (£7,234,368 / €8,351,379)
January 2013 Old Masters Auctions – Report Old Masters auctions at Sotheby’s and Christie’s achieved strong prices for works by Fra Bartolommeo, Botticelli and Pompeo Batoni. However, top lots by Bronzino and Goya failed to sell.]]>
February 1, 2013, source: Sotheby’s / Christie’s
Christie’s “Renaissance” sale was led by Fra Bartolommeo’s “The Madonna and Child”, which sold for $12,962,500 (£8,166,375 / €9,592,250) setting a new world auction record for the artist. The beautiful “Rockefeller Madonna” by Botticelli fetched a strong $10,442,500 (£6,578,775 / €7,727,450) against a pre-sale estimate of $5,000,000 – $7,000,000 (interestingly, the work was offered at TEFAF Maastricht 2010, with an asking price in the region of $15 million).
Agnolo Bronzino’s “Portrait of a Young Man with a Book” (pre-sale estimate: $12,000,000 – $18,000,000) failed to reach its minimum price, despite the fact of being one of the best Renaissance portraits to appear on the market in recent times. The good news for Christie’s came with Scipione Pulzone’s “Portrait of Jacopo Boncompagni”, wich fetched a remarkable $7,586,500 / £4,779,495 / €5,614,010 against a pre-sale estimate of $1,500,000 – 2,500,000. In addition to the “Renaissance” lots, Christie’s set new world auction records for Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin and Annibale Carracci.
Sotheby’s Old Masters Paintings and Sculpture auction was highlighted by Pompeo Batoni’s impressive “Susanna and the Elders”, which sold for $11,394,500 (£7,234,368 / €8,351,379). “Heidelberg with a Rainbow”, a large and excellent watercolor by J.M.W. Turner fetched $4,562,500, slightly over its low estimate.
As happened with the Bronzino at Christie’s, another great portrait failed to sell at Sotheby’s. Goya’s dark but quite important “Portrait of Mariano Goya, the artist’s grandson” failed to reach its minimum price despite its reasonable estimate of $6,000,000 – 8,000,000. On the other hand, Fragonard’s “The Goddess Aurora triumphing over the night” sold for a strong $3,834,500 against a pre-sale estimate of $1,800,000 – 2,500,000.
Related content
Tiepolo, Canaletto, Martini lead old master’s auctions (news, January 2012)
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