This Egyptian greywacke Isis made £3,681,250, the highest price ever paid for a work of art at Christie’s, South Kensington.
The Egyptian section yielded particularly strong prices at the Antiquities sale at Christie’s, South Kensington, on October 25. The top lot was an Egyptian greywacke Isis dating from c664-525 B.C. Greywacke is a type of dark sandstone. Illustrated on the catalogue cover it made £3,681,250 after a heated battle between bidders in the room, via telephones and online. It had been estimated at £400,000-600,000 and was sold to Daniel Katz Ltd. This was the highest price ever paid for a work of art at Christie’s, South Kensington.
The sale brought in £8,080,563, concluding a record breaking year for the London department. Annual sales exceeded £13.8 million in 2012. Laetitia Delaloye of Christie’s said: “The strength of the market is evident by the variety of areas represented in the top lots – Egyptian, Greek and Roman. Interestingly, over a quarter of the sale was sold or directly underbid online”.