The auction sale of Old Master paintings held by Sotheby's on January 28th 2000 achieved a total of $ 47,482,575 with 82% of lots sold.
A New World auction price was achieved for Rubens, whose portrait of a Man as the God Mars sold for $ 8,252,500 (inclusive of buyer premium). Such work had however been sold privately in 1988 for $ 13,2 million to David Paul, Director of the Centrust Savings Bank of Miami who was later imprisoned on charges of embezzling funds.
Guardi
A pair of views of Venice by Francesco Guardi fetched $ 5,612,500 while the National Gallery of Washington bought Domenico Zampieri's God the Father rebuking Adam and Eve for $ 3,302,500.
Zampieri
London dealer Johnny Van Haeften bought a Brazilian 25.4 x 40.6 cm oil on panel landscape by Frans Post for $ 2,6 million against a top pre-sale estimate of $ 1,5 million and Rubens' 18.7 x 14 cm oil sketch on panel representing “The Abduction of Dejanira by Nessus” for $ 425,000, a bid which almost tripled the top pre-sale estimate.
Rubens: “The abduction of Dejanira”
The auction sale of Old Master paintings held by Sotheby's on January 28th 2000 achieved a total of $ 47,482,575 with 82% of lots sold.
A New World auction price was achieved for Rubens, whose portrait of a Man as the God Mars sold for $ 8,252,500 (inclusive of buyer premium). Such work had however been sold privately in 1988 for $ 13,2 million to David Paul, Director of the Centrust Savings Bank of Miami who was later imprisoned on charges of embezzling funds.
Guardi
A pair of views of Venice by Francesco Guardi fetched $ 5,612,500 while the National Gallery of Washington bought Domenico Zampieri's God the Father rebuking Adam and Eve for $ 3,302,500.
Zampieri
London dealer Johnny Van Haeften bought a Brazilian 25.4 x 40.6 cm oil on panel landscape by Frans Post for $ 2,6 million against a top pre-sale estimate of $ 1,5 million and Rubens' 18.7 x 14 cm oil sketch on panel representing “The Abduction of Dejanira by Nessus” for $ 425,000, a bid which almost tripled the top pre-sale estimate.
Rubens: “The abduction of Dejanira”
Andrea del Sarto
Andrea's del Sarto's The Madonna and Child, which was discovered in the rectory closet of All Saints Episcopal Church in West Newbury, Massachusetts, sold for $ 1,102,500, setting a new world record for the artist. The earliest painting in the sale, Taddeo Gaddi's The Crucifixion with Virgin and Saint John (1330s) sold for $ 690,000 against an estimate of $ 140,000-160,000.
Gaddi
A view of the “Isola di Sora” by French painter Jean-Joseph-Xavier Bidauld (1758-1846) fetched a surprising price of $ 250,000 against a top pre-sale estimate of $ 60,000.
F. X. Bidauld
Giuseppe Arcimboldo's A Reversible Anthropomorphic Portrait dramatically exceeded its high estimate of $ 300,000 when it sold for $ 1,432,500, a world record for the artist. A Still life with a basket of fruit by the master of the Acquavella Still Life sold for $ 882,500 (inclusive of buyer premium),
Master of the Acquavella, Still life, circa 1590/1625
A Study of a sprig of flowers by Jan van Kessel the Elder sold for $ 675,000 (not inclusive of buyer premium) against a high estimate of $ 200,000 and Balthasar van der Ast's Flowers in a wicker basket achieved $ 662,500. Overall the sale of still life works was however not very successful.
van Kessel
van der Ast
Meanwhile, a sale of works by Old Masters also met success at Christie's on January 27th.
Ludovico Carracci's Pieta, an oil on canvas - 95.2 x 172.8 cm painted around 1585 sold for $ 4,75 million against a top pre-sale estimate of $ 500,000. It went to New York dealer Larry Salander on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum of Art of N-Y who was bidding against the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston.
A small oval painting on a lapis lazuli plaque by Arpino was acquired by the Saint Louis Museum for $ 350,000 against à top pre-sale estimate of $ 90,000. The Los Angeles County Museum bought Sebastiano Ricci's Bacchanalia for $ 300,000 while the National Gallery of Washington acquired Louis Leopold Boilly's “Conjuror on the Boulevards” (1806) a 24 x 33 cm oil on canvas for $ 600,000.
L.L. Boilly “L'Escamoteur sur les Boulevards
A 129 x 200 cm oil on panel representing the Crucifixion by the Master of the Death of Saint Nicholas of Munster, active in the second half of the 15th Century, went for $ 3,2 million compared with a top pre-sale estimate of $ 1,2 million to New York dealers Alfred Bader and Otto Neuman who won their bidding battle against the National Gallery of Washington and the museum of Munster. This painting belonged to the Seligman family and had been returned by the Louvre Museum 55 years after it had been recovered among thousands of art treasures looted by the Nazis during the occupation of France.
Another former Nazi war loot, Giambattista Tiepolo's “Alexander and Campaspe in Apelles' studio”, a 42 x 54 cm oil on canvas which had belonged to Frederico Gentili di Giuseppe, was bought by the Getty Museum at its top pre-sale estimate of $ 2 million. Another Tiepolo work, also from the di Giuseppe collection, a sketch showing “Rinaldo abandoning Armida”, an oil on canvas measuring 39 x 61 cm, was also acquired by the Getty Museum for $ 950,000 against a top pre-sale estimate of $ 800,000.
Meanwhile Carlo Maratta's “Alpheus and Arethuseus” was bought by a Spanish collector for $ 600,000. A recently rediscovered painting by Canaletto, “The Grand Canal, Venice, looking East from the Campo di San Vio", a 46.5 x 76.8 cm oil on canvas estimated between $ 2,5 and 3,5 million went for $ 6 million. This work, in exceptional condition, was one of the most significant Canaletto rediscoveries of recent times. It was first brought back to light in an exhibition catalogue in 1994 thirty nine years after it had been sold by the 6th Baron Brownlow.
This Canaletto painting had been acquired by Sir John Brownlow, Bart., 1st Viscount Tyrconnel in whose house in Arlington Street, St James's, London, it was already hanging in May 1738, one of the earliest records of a picture by Canaletto in an English collection.
DRAWINGS FLARE UP IN NEW YORK
Important drawings by Old Masters flared up in auction sales in New York on January 26th and 28th 2000 with a work by Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn fetching $ 3,7 million and another by Spanish artist Francisco Goya selling for $ 850,000.
Rembrandt
Goya
Goltzius
The Goya 192 x 155 mm drawing representing an old man on his knees and entitled “Weeping and Wailing” was sold by Sotheby's on January 26th. A 223 x 178 mm drawing by Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617) representing the portrait of Gillis van Breen, his friend, was acquired by the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam for $ 440,000 against an estimate of $ 80,000 to 120,000.
The Paul Getty Museum bought a 251 x 213 mm drawing by Giovanni Antonio Canale, called Canaletto (1697-1768), a Capriccio inspired by the courtyard of the Palazzo Grifalconi-Loredan in Venice, for $ 160,000 against a top pre-sale estimate of $ 70,000.
Canaletto
Meanwhile, Katrin Bellenger bought another Canaletto drawing measuring 435 x 289 mm and representing the North side of the Campo Basso with the Church and a market scene on the verso, for $ 130,000 despite the opinion of Charles Beddington, the expert on Canaletto, that this work was more probably by Bellotto, another Venetian artist.
Rembrandt
A 151 x 175 mm study by Rembrandt of an old man seated warming his hands by a fire fetched $ 277,500. Christie's sale on January 28th brought more surprises with two other magnificent drawings by Rembrandt. A pen and ink wash showing the bulwark called the Rose and the Mill, 134 x 218 mm sold in favour of the Pierpont Morgan Library for $ 3,7 million against a top pre-sale estimate of $ 2,4 million. This drawing had been acquired for $ 686,782 in the sale of the Chatsworth collection in 1984.
Another landscape by Rembrandt showing the bulwark at the St Anthonispoort, Amsterdam, a 142 x 178 mm pen and brown ink, brown wash drawing fetched $ 2,6 million against a top pre-sale estimate of $ 1,8 million. It went to Bob Haboldt, a dealer, while the Getty museum bought for $ 156,500 a magnificent 78 x 108 mm preparatory sketch by Heinrich Aldegrever (circa 1501- circa 1555/61) representing “Lazarus begging for crumbs before Dives' table”, which was a study for a print of the same subject.
Aldegrever
Prices seem to go up quite rapidly on the market, the main reason being that important drawings are now scarce.
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Ludovico Carracci's Pieta, an oil on canvas - 95.2 x 172.8 cm painted around 1585 sold for $ 4,75 million against a top pre-sale estimate of $ 500,000. It went to New York dealer Larry Salander on behalf of the Metropolitan Museum of Art of N-Y who was bidding against the Museum of Fine Arts of Boston. 
Another former Nazi war loot, Giambattista Tiepolo's “Alexander and Campaspe in Apelles' studio”, a 42 x 54 cm oil on canvas which had belonged to Frederico Gentili di Giuseppe, was bought by the Getty Museum at its top pre-sale estimate of $ 2 million. Another Tiepolo work, also from the di Giuseppe collection, a sketch showing “Rinaldo abandoning Armida”, an oil on canvas measuring 39 x 61 cm, was also acquired by the Getty Museum for $ 950,000 against a top pre-sale estimate of $ 800,000. 
