Portraits by Velazquez and Goya are the main attractions in a 55.6-million-pound ($86.5 million) series of Old Master auctions in London next month that have struggled to lure big-ticket works by major artists.
The upper estimate for these biannual Part 1 sales at Christie’s International, Sotheby’s and Bonhams is 22 percent lower than last year, reflecting owners’ reluctance to sell in the current economic climate.
The auction market for historic paintings is heavily reliant on discerning collectors from Europe, where confidence has been knocked by sovereign debt concerns. New international buyers, meanwhile, have been more attracted to modern and contemporary works.
“People are nervous about selling at the moment,” said Andrew McKenzie, an Old Master specialist at Bonhams. “They don’t think the economy is very good and are worried their works won’t fetch high prices. I’m confident the good pictures will still do well.”
Bonhams’s most valuable lot is a discovery, rather than a discretionary sale. The company is offering a newly identified Velazquez, valued at 2 million pounds to 3 million pounds, in its Dec. 7 auction. The head-and-shoulders portrait of an unknown middle-aged man was found among a group of paintings entered for sale at the company’s Oxford branch in August 2010. It had formerly been owned by the obscure 19th-century U.K. artist Matthew Shepperson.
Rare Find
The well-preserved canvas was identified as a Velazquez by the Dublin-based scholar Dr. Peter Cherry. It is thought to date from about 1630.
“I’d be surprised if it doesn’t sell for at least 10 million pounds,” said the London-based dealer Charles Beddington. “A collector who is really serious about art should want to own a Velazquez and there won’t be another one coming along anytime soon.”
Goya’s portrait of Don Juan Lopez de Robredo, the splendidly waistcoated embroiderer to King Carlos IV of Spain, is valued by Christie’s at 4 million pounds to 6 million pounds in its Dec. 6 sale. Offered by a Spanish collector, it last appeared at auction in 1992 when it failed to sell.
Quality oils by Velazquez and Goya rarely appear on the market and no work by either artist has sold for more than 10 million pounds at auction.
