Velazquez, Portrait of a Gentleman. (Click on image to enlarge).
A newly discovered, previously unknown, Portrait of a Gentleman by Velazquez made £3 million at Bonhams in London on December 7. The portrait had been with a batch of works consigned to Bonhams in Oxford in 2010. They advised further investigation.
Dr Peter Cherry, Professor of Art History at the University of Dublin, one of the world’s foremost authorities on Velázquez and his school, confirmed the attribution to the Spanish artist Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660). Technical analysis and an x-radiograph further confirmed it.
A second lost masterpiece, Three peaches on a stone ledge with a painted lady butterfly by Dutch artist Adriaen Coorte made £2.1million. This is a new world record price for the artist at auction. The sale total for Bonhams Old Master Paintings auction was £6,329,500.
(See post on antiquesandartireland.com for October 27).