{"id":2020880,"date":"2026-06-30T23:15:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:15:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2020880"},"modified":"2026-06-30T23:15:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T20:15:31","slug":"christies-old-masters-sale-totals-48-7-m-as-collectors-chase-top-pictures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2020880","title":{"rendered":"Christie’s Old Masters Sale Totals $48.7 M. as Collectors Chase Top Pictures"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Mehmed-II-and-the-Patriarch-Gennadius-outside-the-Walls-of-Constantinople.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tSince Gustav Klimt\u2019s\u00a0Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer<\/em>\u00a0sold for $236.4 million last November, clinching the title of second most expensive artwork to sell at auction, the secondary market\u2019s mantra can best be summed up as \u201ccollectors will open their hearts and their wallets for exceptional work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Tuesday, Christie\u2019s put that dictum to the test with its Old Masters Evening Sale in London, a 40-lot offering that landed comfortably within its pre-sale estimate of\u00a0roughly \u00a325 million to \u00a337.5 million\u00a0<\/strong>(excluding fees). In total, Collectors spent \u00a338.9 million ($51.4 million) at Christie\u2019s Old Masters Evening Sale in London on Tuesday, pushing the auction past its pre-sale high estimate as competition for a handful of exceptional works drove a string of artist records. <\/p>\n

\n\tLed by Sir Thomas Lawrence\u2019s portrait of the Duke of Wellington and two still lifes by Jan van Huysum, the sale sold 96 percent by value and 90 percent by lot, underscoring continued demand for top-quality Old Master paintings. There was strong bidding for a handful of standout works\u2014including two sumptuous still lifes by Jan van Huysum\u2014even as buyers passed on three lots and a fourth was withdrawn before reaching the block.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sale featured relatively few disappointments: The three passed lots included a panel of\u00a0The Resurrection of Christ<\/em>\u00a0by the Master of the Oberstenfeld Altarpiece, Thomas Gainsborough\u2019s\u00a0Portrait of Dorothea, Lady Eden<\/em>, and Canaletto\u2019s\u00a0Venice, San Giorgio Maggiore from the Bacino di San Marco<\/em>. The withdrawn work was Michiel van Musscher\u2019s\u00a0A Portrait of the Artist in His Studio<\/em>. The results suggest that buyers remain highly selective rather than indiscriminately bullish. When quality, rarity, and fresh provenance aligned, estimates quickly became little more than suggestions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe night\u2019s biggest winner was Jan van Huysum.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Dutch master\u2019s sumptuous still life of peaches and grapes, overflowing with plums, raspberries, currants, melon, hazelnuts and flowers arranged before a stone column and terracotta urn, sold for\u00a0\u00a36.52 million\u00a0($8.65 million) after carrying an estimate of\u00a0\u00a33 million to \u00a34 million. Its companion painting, an elaborate bouquet of roses, peonies, narcissi, poppies and orange blossom arranged in a sculpted terracotta vase with a bird\u2019s nest perched nearby, followed close behind at\u00a0\u00a35.54 million ($7.35 million), comfortably above its\u00a0\u00a32.5 million to \u00a33.5 million\u00a0estimate.\u00a0Both pictures set a record for the artist.<\/p>\n

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Jan van Huysum, Peaches and grapes in a wicker basket<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tChristie\u2019s devoted an unusually substantial section of its catalogue to the pair, tracing their distinguished provenance through some of Europe\u2019s great eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections. The floral still life was so admired that Caroline Louise, Margravine of Baden, spent three years trying to acquire it through her Paris agent. When negotiations finally failed, the agent lamented that he had missed out on what he called \u201cthe most brilliant\u201d Van Huysum he knew.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe sale\u2019s biggest surprise, however, may have been an anonymous one.<\/p>\n

\n\tA haunting 17th-century Dutch vanitas still life showing two skulls resting on a marble ledge beside a quill and sheet of paper was estimated at just\u00a0\u00a380,000 to \u00a3120,000. Collectors had other ideas. The picture eventually sold for\u00a0\u00a3431,800 (more than $572,500), just over five times its low estimate, making it one of the evening\u2019s strongest performances. Catalogued simply as the work of a \u201cDutch School\u201d painter, it served as a reminder that compelling images\u2014and perhaps a lingering hope of a future attribution\u2014can matter more than a famous signature.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnother standout came in the form of an unusual Renaissance history painting by\u00a0Girolamo da Santacroce, which depicts the meeting between the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II and the newly appointed Patriarch Gennadius following the fall of Constantinople in 1453. Estimated at\u00a0\u00a3100,000 to \u00a3150,000, it climbed to\u00a0\u00a3673,100 ($892,000)<\/p>\n

\n\tThe picture carries a fascinating backstory. Christie\u2019s catalogue describes it as an exceptionally rare treatment of a pivotal political moment, when Mehmed sought to consolidate his rule over the former Byzantine capital by installing Gennadius as patriarch of the Orthodox Church. The work also boasts an impressive provenance, having once belonged to Ludovico Manin, the last Doge of Venice, before passing through the collection of William Richard Hamilton, the diplomat remembered for helping secure the Rosetta Stone for the British Museum after Napoleon\u2019s Egyptian campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Dutch School, 17th Century. Two skulls with a quill and paper on a marble ledge<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThere were plenty of other healthy results. Louis-L\u00e9opold Boilly\u2019s\u00a0Thirty-five Expressive Heads<\/em>\u00a0sold for\u00a0\u00a3914,400\u00a0($1.2 million) against a\u00a0\u00a3400,000-to-\u00a3600,000\u00a0estimate. A portrait by Ad\u00e9la\u00efde Labille-Guiard more than doubled its low estimate to bring\u00a0\u00a31.12 million ($1.49 million), while John Melhuish Strudwick\u2019s richly detailed Victorian painting reached\u00a0\u00a31.51 million ($2 million), well above its\u00a0\u00a3700,000-to-\u00a31 million\u00a0estimate.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe evening\u2019s most valuable lot, meanwhile, performed exactly as expected. Sir Thomas Lawrence\u2019s celebrated portrait of the Duke of Wellington realized\u00a0\u00a39.67 million ($12.8 million), comfortably within its\u00a0\u00a38 million-to-\u00a312 million\u00a0estimate and setting a new world auction record for the artist. Christie\u2019s also set new auction highs for Jan van Mieris, Girolamo da Santacroce, Ad\u00e9la\u00efde Labille-Guiard and John Melhuish Strudwick.<\/p>\n

\n\tTaken together, the results painted a familiar picture of today\u2019s Old Masters market. Collectors showed little interest in chasing every lot across the block. Instead, they concentrated their firepower on pictures that felt genuinely rare, fresh to market or art historically significant. That dynamic helped propel the two Van Huysums, the anonymous Dutch vanitas, and Girolamo da Santacroce\u2019s historical scene well beyond expectations, while more conventional offerings struggled to find buyers or simply dissipated before the sale began. <\/p>\n

\n\tFor sellers with exceptional material, Tuesday night\u2019s sale offered an encouraging signal. Everyone else was reminded that selectivity remains the defining feature of this market.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/market\/christies-old-masters-evening-sale-june-2026-results-1234790894\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Mehmed-II-and-the-Patriarch-Gennadius-outside-the-Walls-of-Constantinople.jpg?w=1024″] Since Gustav Klimt\u2019s\u00a0Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer\u00a0sold for $236.4 million last November, clinching the title of second most expensive artwork to sell at auction, the secondary market\u2019s mantra can best be summed up as \u201ccollectors will open their hearts and their wallets for exceptional work.\u201d On Tuesday, Christie\u2019s put that dictum to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-2020880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2020880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2020880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2020880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2020880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2020880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}