Christie’s Previous Masters night sale in London on Tuesday set a brand new public sale report for Canaletto, when certainly one of his celebrated Venice views bought for £31.9 million with charges ($43.7 million).
Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day (circa 1732) had been estimated at £20 million ($27.5 million). The portray was initially assured by the home and later backed by a third-party assure.
In a packed public sale room, 5 bidders competed for the work—as soon as owned by the UK’s first prime minister, Robert Walpole—driving it nicely previous its estimate. It will definitely bought to an nameless cellphone bidder by way of Alice de Roquemaurel, Christie’s worldwide director and head of personal gross sales for postwar and modern artwork. The room erupted in applause when the gavel got here down.
The artist’s earlier report had stood at £18.6 million with charges ($24.6 million) for Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi to the Rialto, bought at Sotheby’s London in 2005.
Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day measures 86 x 13 cm, making it bigger than another important Canaletto work to hit the public sale block over the past 20 years. Christie’s made no secret of its excessive hopes for the portray; earlier than the sale, the home’s King Avenue HQ was draped in a large replica of the work.
“A few artwork advisors instructed me after the sale that it was so nice to see a extremely essential work hovering at public sale—that’s why we’ve got a whole lot of individuals within the room for these gross sales. Final evening the room was packed to the rafters,” Andrew Fletcher, Christie’s world head of Previous Masters, instructed ARTnews. “It offers everybody an actual rush, and it offers the market an actual injection of vitality—it’s essential for that to occur publicly.”
The portray has been auctioned solely twice earlier than: first in 1751, after which in 1993, when the consignor acquired it for £7.5 million ($10.2 million) at Ader Tajan in Paris. On the time, it was the most costly Previous Masters portray ever bought in France.
The collector who consigned the work in 1993 additionally bought Grand Canal from Palazzo Balbi to the Rialto, the work’s pendant, for what had been Canaletto’s public sale report till now.
Christie’s Previous Masters night sale and the concurrent Distinctive Sale introduced in a mixed £60.8 million with charges ($83.6 million). Maja Markovic, Christie’s head of the Previous Masters night sale, stated in a press release: “This night represents a landmark for Christie’s London, attaining the very best sell-through price by worth within the historical past of our Previous Masters gross sales (99 %), and the strongest sell-through price by lot since 2012 (87 %).”
The £31.9 million consequence for Canaletto’s Venice view now stands because the second-highest worth for an Previous Masters work bought at Christie’s London, surpassed solely by Rubens’s Lot and His Daughters (circa 1613), which bought for £44.8 million with charges ($61.5 million) in 2016.
