Marking the start of Christie’s Classic Week London summer sales, the Old Masters Evening Sale and The Exceptional Sale: Masterworks Across Cultures realised a combined total of £50,717,740/ $66,947,417/ €58,832,578.
The sales were led by Sir Thomas Lawrence’s celebrated portrait of Britain’s greatest military hero the Duke of Wellington which sold for £9,670,000/ $12,764,400/ €11,217,200, establishing a new world auction record for the artist, and an important Egyptian Limestone Pair Statue from the Hovingham Hall Collection, which realised £3,710,000/ $4,897,200/ €4,303,600.
OLD MASTERS EVENING SALE IN SUMMARY:
The Old Masters Evening Sale realised £38,940,700/ $51,401,724/ €45,171,212, selling 96% by value and 90% by lot. In addition to the Lawrence, further highlights included:
Two superlative examples showcasing Jan van Huysum’s technical virtuosity and sophisticated compositions sparked consecutive bidding battles, each breaking the previous record for the artist: Fruit and flowers in a wicker basket sold for £6,516,000/ $8,601,120/ €7,558,560 and Flowers in a terracotta vase sold for and £5,540,000/ $7,312,800/ €6,426,400.
Rubens’s sketch Aeneas helping Dido from her horse, Property from The Grosvenor Family Collection, sold for £2,734,000/ $3,608,880/ €3,171,440. Few surviving oil sketches by the artist so completely embodies the spontaneity of his creative imagination.
Maja Markovic, Head of Old Masters Evening Sale, London: “This evening’s results speak to the continued strength of the Old Master market, with the sale achieving its highest percentage sold by lot to date. Sir Thomas Lawrence’s beautifully preserved portrait of the Duke of Wellington, offered from the collection of the late Sir Robert Ogden, C.B.E., Hon. L.L.D. (1936–2022), more than quadrupled the previous record for the artist – established by this very picture almost two decades ago – achieving a new world auction record and underscoring its storied provenance and historical importance. The technical brilliance of Jan van Huysum, celebrated in his own day as the ‘Phoenix of Flower Painting’, was recognised in the record prices achieved for each of his two superlative still lifes, recalling the remarkable results they achieved when last offered more than 20 years ago. Further world auction records were established for Adélaïde Labille-Guiard’s elegant portrait of the Marquise de La Valette and John Melhuish Strudwick’s poetic late Pre-Raphaelite masterpiece, contributing to six records set in the sale. The first works offered from The Hon. Patrick and Lady Amabel Lindsay Collection and The Albert Zuckerman Collection were keenly anticipated and drew competitive bidding. Across the auction, works of real distinction, carefully estimated and presented with rigorous scholarship, attracted the competition that exceptional Old Masters continue to command.”
New world record prices for artists at auction were set for: Lot 7 Jan van Huysum £6,516,000; Lot 10 Sir Thomas Lawrence £9,670,000; Lot 12 Jan van Mieris £355,600; Lot 26 Girolamo da Santacroce £673,100; Lot 32 Adélaïde Labille-Guiard £1,117,600; Lot 40 John Melhuish Strudwick £1,514,000.
THE EXCEPTIONAL SALE: MASTERWORKS ACROSS CULTURES IN SUMMARY:
Christie’s The Exceptional Sale: Masterworks Across Cultures realised a total of £11,777,040/ $15,545,693 / €13,661,366. In addition to the Egyptian Limestone Pair Statue, further highlights include:
A first edition of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (together with Agnes Grey), surviving in its original 1847 publisher’s cloth binding, sold for £1,206,500/ $1,592,580/ €1,399,540, setting a new world auction record for the author, as well as the highest price ever achieved for 19th-century literature and for any printed book by a woman.
Thomas Williams, Head of The Exceptional Sale: Masterworks Across Cultures, London commented, “This sale brought together trophy pieces of extraordinary cultural, historical and scientific significance, with strong competition across categories and geographies, reflecting continued global demand for rarity and exceptional provenance. It is notable that 38% of new registrants for this sale were millennials. It has been a privilege to present such a wide-ranging group of works, from an important Egyptian Pair Statue to canonical works of English literature including a first edition of Wuthering Heights.”
Main Image: Auctioneer Georgina Hilton, Christie’s Head of Classic Art Asia Pacific
