Raphael and Rembrandt bring in huge money at auction
Filed under: Art Sales — Alan @ 8:58 am
Last night the most expensive item at the Christie’s auction sold for £29,171, 250. The painting was a drawing by Raphael that was expected to only sell at £12 to £16 million.
Head of a Muse was drawn as part of a study in Parmasssus and is part of a series of Frescoes that were completed in the Vatican at the Stanze della Segnatura.
It was produced back to 1508-15011 and was commissioned by Pope Julius II.
Before last night, the highest price for a drawing at an auction was a Degas that sold at a 2008 New York auction for £22,742,106.
This was the first time that the Raphael drawing was involved in a public auction in over 150 years. During the same sale, a Rembrandt first broke a record when it reached an auction price of £20.2m,
The Rembrandt, Portrait of A Man, Half-Length with His Hands Akimbo was given the largest pre sale estimate that has been seen for an Old Master painting.
The highest Old Master record for an auction was set in 2002 when a painting by Ruben far exceeded a six million pound estimate and sold for £50m.
Still, the Rembrandt is now fourth on the list of Old Master artworks that sold for millions at the auction house.
The extremely rich consider high ticket artworks to be a viable investment option in a year when the art market has continued to take a beating.
Italian investigators made something of a coup this past weekend after repeated attempts to get at the assets from the Parmalat collapse, by seizing art and paintings valued at around £90m.