Antique Art Sales Disappointment in New York Auctions: What’s Behind the Decline?

It has been a while since sales of old paintings have been lacking in depth in so-called “English” rooms, whether in London or here in New York. The number of lots is decreasing and above all the masterpieces are no longer lined up as they were ten or twenty years ago. The caution of depositors is logical given the disenchantment of enthusiasts for the old. Relative disenchantment, however, because, at Brafa, the proponents of the arts from the Haute-Epoque, the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries said through press releases and confidences that they had worked well. We will take their word for it, in the absence of proof. In auction rooms, transparency is the rule. At Christie’s, we published two amounts for the daytime sale and then the evening sale, reserved for cream. Today’s sale brought in $3,309,642, accumulated on 131 lots, including numerous sculptures. There we saw a painting of Animated Landscape, by Antwerp artist Van Bloemen, known as Orizzonte, estimated at $15,000, selling for $3,024!

The evening sale raised $13,774,420, based on 72 lots. We will stay on that of the evening, where 42 lots were sold out of 72.

La Hyre and Blanchet

There were only works of high quality, announced between 200,000 and one and a half million dollars in estimates. They came from Italian, Flemish, Dutch and a few rare French pictorial centers, such as a superb composition by Laurent de La Hyre (1605-1656), Allegory of the Public Faith, which did not sell for $400,000, despite a prestigious Seligman provenance. It was the same for two paintings by another Frenchman, Thomas Blanchet (1614-1689), working in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin as did the Liégeois Bertholet Flémal, his contemporary. The two canvases (74 x 99 cm), stitched with Greek temples and telling ancient stories, remained at the dock, at $100,000! Teniers, Bosschaert, Lessor, Siberechts, among others, suffered the same fate. A portrait of Rubens and a Beuckelaer saved the Nordics.

At Sotheby´s, the evening sale allowed only 29 lots to be sold out of 49 presented, which is not great all the same. The highest price was obtained at a little more than the high estimate for The Wailing Wall by Gustav Bauernfeind (1848-1904), which was not even an antique. The hammer fell at $3,448,000.

• Public sale Where? In New York, at Christie´s and at Sotheby´s. When ? January 31 at the first city. February 1st at the second.

2024-02-12 17:43:00
#Mixed #sales #York #Libre