News

Christie's sale of Old Master Prints held in London  on 7 July, 2011 was a tremendous success, realising £2.9 million and achieving the world record for any print by Albrecht Dürer at auction with a magnificent impression of Adam and Eve, which sold for £409,250 to a private Latin American collector.

One of the highlights of the sale – Dürer's rare first engraving, The Ravisher – doubled its pre-sale estimate. Following its success, outstanding results were achieved by numerous masterpieces including Dürer's Saint Anthony Reading (£127,250) and Rembrandt's Agony in the Garden (£181,250). As a grand finale, Schongauer's delightful Virgin and Child on a Grassy Bench (£145,250) was fiercely contested over and quadrupled its low estimate.

This was all the more remarkable as the estimates for some of the finest prints were by no means cautious. The market clearly endorsed our confident pricing of the sale: there was strong demand from established buyers as well as new collectors, resulting in competitive bidding almost throughout the sale.