The scarce offerings plummet sales at Durán
Madrid, 04/26/12 The little public who attended Duran's April sale is proof beyond a doubt of the litttle interest the works in the sale aroused among collectors. Besides the spartan quality of some paintings, it was surprising to find many unsold lots from prior sales. Once again these lots failed to attract bidders, even though they have been on the...
The 1.15 million dollar Penny
Chicago, 04/25/12 The unusual lot sold at the Rennaisance Schaumburg Conventions Centre for more than 870 thousand dollars, became the most valuable penny in the history of the United States. Employes from the bidding room confirmed that Kevin Lipton from Beverly Hills was responsible for the purchase in the name of a group of investors. The final bid was a...
Dorotheum II, Spanish Old Masters
Vienna, 04/23/12 High and low were the hammer prices for Spanish painting, a very different performance to what we are accustomed within the Penninsula's frontiers. By price, the Still Life attributed years ago by Peter Cherry to Juan de Espinosa, and recently considered to be an autograph work of the the Valencian master by the English professor, tops the...
Dorotheum III, Painters and Portraits
Vienna, 04/23/12 The common denominator on the 18th of April was not a painter but a genre, the portrait genre, which found the greatest acceptence among bidders. It was to be expected, the firm had gathered a formidable selection on the subject. New winds are blowing and the old stigma of hanging somebody else's great grand mother in your living room seems...
Dorotheum I, European Old Masters
Vienna, 04/23/12 In a room packed with eager bidders with telephones ringing without stop, the last incoporation to the catalogue of the painter Lorenzo Lippi, The Triumph of David, left behind its cautious starting price of 120.000 euros to sell for 750.000 euros. The unknown Florentine work, with a clear Caravaggesque influence in spite of being painted in...
Leonardo Alenza beats Ansorena's record for 2012
Madrid, 04/18/12 Leonardo Alenza y Nieto, famous for his genre scenes spiced with social critizism, is not specially well-known for historical depictions. However (or perhaps precisely due to this), this work has become the most expensive work sold this year in the Madrid bidding room. The canvas, with traces of Goya in the brushstroke and dark tones,...
Bonhams launches a handbag sale
London, 04/18/12 Coinciding with the jewellery sales scheduled that month, Bonhams creates a new category to satisfy the raising demand for fashion items and accesories by established brands. It is no coincidence that the Parisian brand has been chosen for this matter. Hermès is known for their dedication to quality and has never used assembly lines in the...
Christie's presents an exceptional Hebrew manuscript
Paris, 04/16/12 With more than 400 pages the illuminated manuscript on vellum is the only example of a Mahzor made by Guliano Boccardi. Made in Tuscany, probably in Florence, around 1490 it is in the market for the first time. The lot has an estimate of 400.000-600.000 euros, but is expected to fetch much more, specially if it succeds in arousing the...
Sotheby's Hong Kong drops
Hong Kong, 04/16/12 The 4th of April the British bidding room concluded the series of eight sales scheduled in Hong Kong, registering a total of 212.5 million pounds. More tahn 2.500 lots went under the hammer between the 15th of March and the first week of April. Globally it represents a drop of nearly 20 per cent in total sale results compared to last year's...
Thousand dollar shots at Phillip's de Pury
New York, 04/12/12 Since the Russian conglomarate Mercury Group took control of the American bidding room, the company has been constant in its goal to trap the demand of the British duopoly. But the last battle augures not only better results for the auction house but gives way to the promotion of a category up to now described as risky. The up to now steemed...
The international touch at Arte Información y Gestión
Seville, 04/09/12 It is not common for a Spanish auction house to offer Vietnamese Contemporary art pieces, specially by reknown names in rising demand. Arte Información y Gestión will present in its next sale on the 23 of May, Young women among Poppies, one of the most typical works by Le Pho. The composition of oval femenine faces in the middle of an...
Bartolomeo Schedoni in Dorotheum
Vienna, 04/02/12 As the faithfull reader will no doubt remember the 27 of April of 2011 an Italian anonymous work of the Holy Family was sold at Durán Auctions. With a starting price of 600 euros the canvas multiplied its initial estimate, ultimately being adjudged to a bidder on the phone who paid the 40.000 euros of the final bid. Now the canvas which a year...