The Goya portrait at Christies. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD.
A Goya portrait leads Christie’s Old Master and British paintings sale on December 6. The portrait of Juan López de Robredo by Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) is estimated at £4-£6 million. There are 36 paintings in the sale spanning 500 years of European art history. There is strong portraiture and a number of Dutch pictures in an auction expected to realize between £18-£26 million.
The Battle between Carnival and Lent by Brueghel at Christie's. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THIS MADE £6,873,250, A WORLD RECORD FOR THE ARTIST AT AUCTION.
Other highlights include The Battle between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Brueghel II (1564/5-1637/8) (£3.5-£4.5 million); a full length Portrait of Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl of Chesterfield (1755-1815), by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) (£2.5-£3.5 million); Dutch men-o’-war and other shipping in a calm by Willem van de Velde II (1633-1707) (£1.5-£2.5 million); An old woman spinning in an interior by Nicolaes Maes (1632-1693), 1658 (£1-£1.5 million) and An old man at a casement, 1646, by Govaert Flinck (1615-1660) (£700,000-£1,000,000).
UPDATE: THE sale realised £24,132,100, selling 72 per cent by lot and 79 per cent by value. The Brueghel illustrated on the right was the top lot. Record prices at auction were established for Willem van de Velde II, Govaert Flinck, Andrea Soldi and Francesco Zaganelli da Cotignola in a sale where 73 per cent of lots on offer realised a price in excess of the pre-sale estimate.