Displaying items by tag: global tour

Christie’s announced it has been entrusted with the sale of the Collection of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, the distinguished American scholar, dealer and collector of Asian Art who passed away in August 2014. Widely recognized throughout Asia and the Americas for his ground-breaking role in the study and appreciation of Asian Art, Mr. Ellsworth was a distinguished connoisseur who opened new arenas of collecting to Western audiences and built a successful business purveying the very finest works of art to his generation’s foremost collectors. His personal collection of over 2,000 items was assembled over a lifetime and widely recognized as the most important grouping of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian sculpture, paintings, furniture and works of art. To celebrate this exceptional collection and the generous and benevolent man behind it, Christie's is organizing free public exhibitions and a special five-day series of auctions and online-only sales to be held during Asian Art Week at Christie's New York in March 2015. A global tour of highlights from the collection kicks off November 21 in Hong Kong, and will continue to stops throughout Asia and Europe prior to the New York sales.

For the first time in over a century, Francesco Guardi’s “Venice, the Bacino di San Marco with the Piazzetta and the Doge’s Palace” will be offered at auction. The painting, which was created during the height of Guardi’s career, will be sold during Christie’s Old Master & British Paintings Evening Sale in London on July 8, 2014. The work carries a presale estimate of $13 million to $16.5 million.

Guardi, who was born into a family of Venetian painters, is best known for his views of the city, which were especially popular with British tourists visiting Italy. “Venice, the Bacino di San Marco with the Piazzetta and the Doge’s Palace” highlights the Doge’s Palace, one of the city’s most notable landmarks. Built during the 14th century, the Venetian Gothic palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the city’s supreme authority.

“Venice, the Bacino di San Marco with the Piazzetta and the Doge’s Palace” was once part of the collection of The Earls of Shaftesbury and was later acquired by France’s Baron James-Edouard de Rothschild. The painting was then passed down to Rothschild’s daughter, Jeanne-Sophie-Henriette, Baronne Leonino, and then to her brother, Baron Henri-James-Charles-Nathan de Rothschild, who passed the work down to its present owners.

Prior to the sale, “Venice, the Bacino di San Marco with the Piazzetta and the Doge’s Palace,” which has not been seen in public since 1954, will embark on a global tour. The painting will go on view at Christie’s in Paris (March 3-4, 2014) and will continue on to Moscow (April 12-13, 2014), New York (May 2-6, 2014), Hong Kong (May 22-26, 2014), and then back to London where it will be exhibited from July 5, 2014 through July 8, 2014.