Master Paintings Week London

The first Master Paintings Week, London, 4 to 10 July, has been voted a resounding success by the two auction houses and twenty-three galleries taking part, the latter reporting up to 100 visitors a day from all over the world: Europe, Israel, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand. “The gallery has been rocking” said Leopold Deliss of Verner Åmels. Visitors who travelled to London especially for this event, which coincided with the summer auctions of Master Paintings and another dealer initiative, Master Drawings London, included not only private collectors but also professionals such as conservators and restorers, other dealers and auction house representatives, and curators from such UK institutions as the V&A, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, British Museum, Derby Museum, Ashmolean Museum, Southampton University and National Trust; from the USA the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery Washington, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Herbert F Johnson Museum at Cornell University, Denver Art Institute, J Paul Getty Museum, Fine Arts Museum San Francisco, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Kimbell Art Museum, as well as the Musée du Louvre and Louvre Abu Dhabi, Museo del Prado, and Israel Museum.

A significant number of sales has resulted and dealers expect that the seeds sown during the week will also bear fruit in subsequent months. Michael Tollemache made three sales including The Triumphal Entry of the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand into Antwerp by Pieter Snayers (1592-after 1666) to a Belgian collector. Johnny van Haeften said MPW had been a “brilliant success” with sales of a large church interior by Anthonie De Lorme (1610-1679), an interior of a man reading by Willem van Mieris (1662-1747), A Peasant Brawl by Pieter Brueghel the Younger (c. 1564-1638), and a number of smaller pieces under consideration. Richard Green sold a landscape by Salomon Ruysdael (1600/03-1670) for a six-figure sum to a new European client who came over especially for Master Paintings Week. Fergus Hall sold Rest on the flight into Egypt by Cornelis van Poelenburgh (c.1594-1667) shortly before the event, as a direct result of its illustration in the MPW catalogue. All dealers reported that the initiative has stimulated many useful contacts with Moatti, for example, reporting particular interest in lower-priced items such as French plein-air paintings by Benouville, Coignet and Rémond.

Sales at the auction houses also demonstrated the underlying strength of the Old Master Paintings market. Christie’s inaugural Old Masters and 19th Century Art Evening Sale realised £20,284,400 / $32,840,444 / €23,550,188, and was 76% sold by lot and 91% sold by value. The top lots were The Madonna and Child in a landscape with Saint Elizabeth and the infant Saint John the Baptist by Fra Bartolommeo (1472-1517) and a masterpiece Venetian view by Michele Marieschi (1710-1743), both of which realised £2,169,250 / $3,512,016 / €2,518,499. Sotheby’s summer series of Old Master and British sales realised a total of £45,033,944/ $72,439,197/ €52,102,967, comfortably within the pre-sale expectations. The top lot was Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s finest version of The Massacre of the Innocents which sold to an anonymous collector for £4,633,250 (estimate £2.5-3.5 million), the second highest price ever achieved for a work by the artist at auction. Jusepe de Ribera’s dramatic Prometheus was the top-selling lot of the single-owner sale of Renaissance & Baroque Masterworks from the Collection of Barbara Piasecka Johnson, selling for £3,849,250 (estimate £800,000-1,200,000), establishing a new auction record for a work by Ribera.

In view of the success of this new initiative, the organisers of Master Paintings Week are already planning a repeat event next year, provisionally to take place from 3 to 9 July 2010.

Participants in 2009:

Thos. Agnew & Sons, Verner Amell, Charles Beddington, Christie’s, P&D Colnaghi & Co, Simon C. Dickinson, Ben Elwes Fine Art, Richard Green, Johnny van Haeften, Derek Johns, Fergus Hall, Matthiesen Gallery, John Mitchell Fine Paintings, Moatti Fine Arts, Moretti Fine Art, Philip Mould, Rafael Valls, Robilant & Voena, Sotheby’s, Sphinx Fine Art, Michael Tollemache Fine Art, Trafalgar Galleries, William Thuillier, The Weiss Gallery, Whitfield Fine Art.

For further information, detailed gallery guide and images, please contact:

Sue Bond Public Relations
Hollow Lane Farmhouse, Thurston, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk IP31 3RQ, UK
Tel. +44 (0)1359 271085
Fax. +44 (0)1359 271934
info@suebond.co.uk
www.suebond.co.uk