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Old Masters Still Hot in London

by Zoe Strimpel
Fri, 7 Dec 2007 at 4:36 PM

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The property market may be teetering on a knife edge (the Bank of England cut interest rates by .25 of a percentage point yesterday to ease the pain of a now-repentant economy). But all is still well on the art market, which this week reported above-estimate sales figures for works at least 300 years old. (Of course, this is one of the most international forums for commerce in the world, so localized economic doom might not be expected to manifest itself.)

At any rate, the Old Masters sales at Christie's and Sotheby's did very nicely, if not ecstatically. At Sotheby's, takings were double their low
estimate of £16.1 million, making a total £32,802,400 ($67,399,091). As predicted, there is much demand for Canaletto views — the pair here, depicting Venice's Grand Canal and the Church of Giovanni e Paolo, went for a cool £4,724,500 (estimated at £1.5 million to £2 million). The taste for heritage works was further proven with the sale of Turner's watercolor painting of Bamborough Castle (mid-1830s).The painting, which went over its pre-sale estimate at £2,932,500 (about $6 million), has not been on the market since 1872.

The next night, Christie's evening auction did less well, making £18,802,200 ($38,021,808). The top lot was "Two Studies of a Young Man," a little-known work by Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), which went for £3,828,500 ($7,741,993), the highest ever price for a Rubens oil sketch at auction.

Old Masters are not quite a "hot" market, but it — and the pockets of its patrons — is certainly in vigorous health.

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