The Gladstone Missal, use of Rome, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum, Padua, 1420. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £151,200
The medieval and Renaissance manuscript section at Christie’s Valuable Books and Manuscripts auction in London on July 9 is led by a sumptuous Paduan Missal, lavishly illuminated in 1420 for the Bishop of Padua, Pietro Marcello, from the library of Prime Minister William Gladstone. It is estimated at £200,000-300,000. It will feature alongside Books of Hours, humanist texts and two compelling examples of English medieval culture: a copy of Magna Carta and a 13th-century tally stick from the Royal Exchequer. The autographs open with a Nelson letter written three days before the Battle of Trafalgar and run to a 1962 love letter from John Lennon to Cynthia, written from the Beatles’ Star Club residency.
GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, CALLED IL CANALETTO (VENICE 1697–1768) – VENICE, THE RETURN OF THE BUCINTORO ON ASCENSION DAY
A masterpiece by Canaletto – Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day – was the top lot at Christie’s Old Masters evening sale in London this evening. It made £31,935,000, a world record price for the artist. It was once in the collection of Sir Robert Walpole, Britain’s first prime minister. The sale brought in £55.2 million, selling 87% by lot and 99% by value.
This breathtaking view of the Feast of Ascension Day has been largely inaccessible to scholars, having appeared at auction only twice in its 300-year history, in 1751 and 1993. Falling on the fortieth day after Easter Sunday, the Feast of the Ascension of Christ was the most spectacular of all Venetian festivals and was frequently commented upon by visitors and travellers who witnessed it. It was on this day exclusively that the Bucintoro, the official galley of the Doge of Venice and a symbol of the Serenissima, was used. The model depicted here, the last to be made at the Arsenale, was designed by Stefano Conti and decorated by the sculptor Antonio Corradini, identifiable by the lion – symbol of the city of Venice – on the prow and the figure of Justice. Accompanied by the city’s officials, the doge would sail out to the Lido on the Bucintoro and cast a ring into the water, a symbolic act representing the marriage of Venice to the sea. It was a ceremony that brought the entire city together and remained a key date in the Venetian calendar until the fall of the Republic in 1797.
See post on antiquesandartireland.com for May 2, 2025.
JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER, R.A. (LONDON 1775-1851) – Lake Brienz, with the Setting Moon
In the 250 anniversary year of his birth a number of works on paper by Turner will come up at Christie’s in London across three sales in London on July 1 and 2 during Classic Week. Showing late Turner at the height of his powers as a watercolourist Lake Brienz, with the Setting Moon is a mesmerizingly peaceful Swiss view, from the 1840’s. Paving the way for the Impressionists, this work shows Turner focusing on the effects of changing light. Property from The Estate of Sanford R. Robertson, it will be offered in the Old Masters evening sale on July 1 with an estimate of £600,000-800,000.
Turner’s View of Stoke House, near Bristol c1790 depicts a figure sketching in the foreground that is thought to be a self-portrait (£20,000-30,000). Pendennis Castle and the entrance to Falmouth Harbour, Cornwall: Scene after a Wreck is from one of Turner’s famous series of watercolours that made his name: England and Wales (£60,000-100,000). Both works are offered inOld Masters, 19th Century Paintings and Drawings from a private collection selling without reserve on July 2.
JOSEPH MALLORD WILLIAM TURNER, R.A. – View of Stoke House, near Bristol
A UNION JACK FLOWN FROM HMS SPARTIATE AT THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR, OCTOBER 21, 1805 UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £1,068,500
A Union Jack flag from the Battle of Trafalgar will come up at Christie’s Exceptional Sale in London on July 1 with an estimate of £500,000-800,000. One of the most spectacular and consequential naval victories in history, The Battle of Trafalgar ended the threat of an invasion of Britain by Napoleon, setting the scene for a century or more of British dominance of the seas. The flag shows signs of battle damage. Analysis by the Zaricor Flag Collection – from which it is being offered for sale – revealed shards of metal embedded in the fabric in several places, notably in the half-moon shaped loss to one edge, suggesting that this is the ‘footprint’ of a cannon ball. Fragments of wood splinters were also found throughout.
It is one of only three intact Union Jacks known to survive from the Battle of Trafalgar. It has been offered on the market just once before in its 220 year history, having been preserved by Captain James Clephan R .N . (1768-1851) who was the Spartiate‘s second lieutenant and then passed by descent until it was acquired in 2009 by Benjamin Reed Zaricor (1947-2022) for the Zaricor Flag Collection. The design was introduced in 1801 after the Act of Union with Ireland. HMS Spartiate fought at the Battle of Trafalgar under Francis Laforey. With Minotaur, she forced the surrender of the Spanish ship Neptuno, of 80 guns. She was was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line captured from the French at the Battle of the Nile in 1798.
Miss January dated 1997 by Marlene Dumas became the most expensive painting by a living female artist ever sold when it made $13.6 million (€11.96 million) at Christie’s in New York.
The global art market is not immune to the trade winds of change blowing us all over the place right now. Even though they brought in $1 billion the slimmed down May sales in New York failed to reach their targets.
On the minus side a bust by Alberto Giacometti of his brother Diego, estimated at around $70 million (€61.57 million), failed to find a buyer at Sotheby’s. On the plus side the collection of Barnes and Noble founder Leonard Riggio and his wife Louise made $272 million (€239.46 million) at Christie’s, the only collection to realise this total in the last 18 months.
It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Marlene Dumas, South African born Netherlands based 71 year old set a new auction record for a living female artist with Miss January, 1997. She has explored portraiture for 40 years and this monumental nine feet tall work of a beauty queen naked from the waist down apart from a pink sock sold for $13.6 million (€11.96 million) at Christie’s. There were records too for previously overlooked 20th century women artists like Grace Hartigan, Dorothea Tanning, Remedios Vara and Kiki Kogelnik.
Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue made $47.6 million (€41.87 million) at Christie’s.
Christie’s global president Alex Rotter said that what we are seeing is an emphasis on individual taste among collectors. “The market is no longer about following the crowd. It is about individual taste and passions. What art makes you feel. That is a very interesting and exciting development for the market”.
The global downturn is influenced by factors like a decline in the number of Asian buyers and the absence of Russian wealth. These do not affect the market for Irish art. Underlying global uncertainty does play into the Irish market but not at a level where the highs are stratospheric and the lows catastrophic. Our very conservative market is characterised by slow, steady growth. It operates in a relatively low value segment which shows up in all current statistics as most immune to all that is going on.
Homme assis by Picasso made $15.1 million (€13.28 million) at Sotheby’s.
One segment that has proved to be not at all immune is the market for young contemporaries. Entirely absent from the sales this month were prices in the millions for young artists that few people had ever heard of. One possible explanation is that buyers of mid-career artists can afford to wait as this work will continue to be available in the future, especially at a time of uncertainty.
The top lot of the week was Mondrian’s Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue from the Riggio collection. It made $47.6 million (€41.87 million) . Magritte’s L’Empire des Lumieres from the same collection made $35 million (€30.79 million). There was a record at Christie’s for Monet when his Peupliers au bord de l’Epte, crepuscule, sold for $43 million (€37.82 million) and set a new record for his celebrated Poplars series.
At Sotheby’s Picasso’s Homme Assis from 1969 made $15.1 million (€13.28 million) and Georgia O’Keeffe’s Leaves of a Plant made $12.9 million (€11.35 million). Roy Lichtenstein’s Reflections – Art made $5.4 million (€4.75 million), one of nine Lichtenstein’s which collectively made $29 million (€25.51 million).
Leaves of a Plant by Georgia O’Keeffe made $12.9 million (€11.35 million) at Sotheby’s.
JAN DAVIDSZ. DE HEEM (UTRECHT 1606-1684 ANTWERP) – STILL LIFE. UPDATE: THIS MADE £3,670,000
A pie on a pewter plate, a partially peeled lemon and overturned silver spoon on a pewter plate, crayfish and shrimp in a Wanli bowl, fruit, a walnut and an oyster on a pewter plate, a basket of fruit, a fluted glass, a silver-gilt cup, a roemer, an overturned silver tazza on a strong box, a silver ewer and a bread roll all on a partially draped table with a curtain beyond are in this marvellous oil on canvas signed and dated ‘J. De Heem f. A° 1649’. Estimated at £3 million – £5 million it will be a highlight at Christie’s Old Masters Evening Sale on July 1 during Classic Week in London.
This appetising work – painted at a time when De Heem produced some of his finest works – reprises themes from an extraordinary group of four large-scale paintings that the artist executed earlier in the decade, but with greater refinement of execution, perhaps in part due to its more manageable scale. Two of these paintings are today at the Louvre (inv. no. 1321) and Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (inv. no. K 1878/5). A third is in a private collection, and the fourth was sold for a world auction record at Christie’s in London on 15 December 2020.
Roy Lichtenstein – Reflections: Art at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $5,479,000
In a tough year for the global art market the big May New York art sales this month are seriously slimmed down but nonetheless offer rich pickings for collectors with deep pockets untroubled by market turmoil.
Auction data, the only section of the opaque art market with sales that can be computed accurately, indicates that overall turnover declined last year for the third year in a row. At blue chip levels there are very few categories where the value of art has gone up in the past two years. Add global uncertainty, tariffs and changing collecting habits to the mix and … who can tell.
Piet Mondrian – Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Grey, Yellow, Black and Blue from the Riggio collection at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $47,560,000
Better news for collectors is that last year more art than ever was sold at auction – for less money. Record auction numbers for artworks at less than €500 or €1,000 is not what floats the boat at senior management levels at big auction houses and major international galleries but it does show that love for art is widespread.
A mere 37 lots will feature at Christie’s 20th century evening sale on Monday May 12 with 42 at the 21st century evening sale on May 14. There will be 65 lots at Sotheby’s Modern evening auction in New York on May 13 and 43 lots at the Now and Contemporary evening auction on May 15. Totals at both houses will be boosted by the sales of lots from the collection of gallerist Barbara Gladstone ($12 million – €10.52 million) along with works from the collection of Dorothy and Roy Lichtenstein (Sotheby’s) and selected works from the collection of Barnes and Nobel founder Len Riggio and his wife Louise (Christie’s) valued at $250 million (€219.20 million).
Paul Signac Saint George. Couchant (Venise) showing the facade of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice at Sunset at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE $8,102,000
Art by Mondrian, Magritte, Picasso, Giacometti, Warhol from the Riggio Collection will excite the interest of worldwide collectors and has been toured in advance to London, Paris, Hong Kong, Dubai and Los Angeles. Len Riggio died last year and his widow is downsizing from her Park Avenue apartment.
The 21st century evening sale at Christie’s reflects the seismic shifts over the last 50 years in the art landscape. There is art by Jean Michel Basquiat, Ed Ruscha, Cecily Brown, Julie Mehretu, Simone Leigh, Lisa Brice, Louis Fratino and others.
The Modern evening auction at Sotheby’s features artworks that capture the spirit of artists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who dared challenge established norms. There is work by Picasso, Giacometti, Magritte, Monet, Delauney, Schiele, Matisse, Munch and Signac included.
Lisa Brice – Midday Drinking Den, After Embah I and II at Christie’s. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR $2,954,000
GIOVANNI ANTONIO CANAL, CALLED IL CANALETTO (VENICE 1697–1768) Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, circa 1732
Canaletto’s breathtaking view of Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day, circa 1732, will lead Christie’s Old Masters Evening Sale on July 1 during Classic Week London (estimate in excess of £20 million). Having only appeared at auction twice in its 300-year history, in 1751 and 1993, this picture is in a remarkable state of preservation with the surface of the painting beautifully textured and the rich impasto of the figures intact. Inaccessible to scholars throughout much of its history, it has only recently come to light that the picture hung at 10 Downing Street, where it is first recorded in 1736, in the collection of Britain’s first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745). This illustrious early 18th century provenance makes it – along with its pendant of the Grand Canal – the earliest recorded work by the Venetian master to be hung in an English house, predating King George III’s purchase of Consul Joseph Smith’s Canalettos by a quarter of a century.
MAURICE SENDAK (1928-2012) – Where the Wild Things Are [New York]: Harper & Row, 1963 First edition, first state, from the author’s library Estimate: $6,000-9,000. UPDATE: THIS MADE $5,670
An unprecedented opportunity to explore the images and ideas that fed the imagination of one of the most beloved picture book artists in history, Maurice Sendak, is coming to Christie’s New York. The Maurice Sendak, Artist, Collector, Connoisseur sale will run as a live auction on June 10 and online from May 29-June 12. His books have sold more than 50 million copies worldwide. The sales will present more than 100 works by artists who inspired Sendak and almost 30 original works by Sendak himself.
Sendak’s taste ranged across the past 500 years and from textiles, to toys, to Chinese ceramics. The sale offers some of the great names in art history: Dürer, Rembrandt, Picasso, and Hockney with a special emphasis on British artists, including William Blake, but also George Stubbs, Henry Fuseli, and Samuel Palmer. There are works by children’s authors including Beatrix Potter and Eric Carle, as well as objects featuring Sendak’s lifelong inspiration, Mickey Mouse.
UPDATE: THE SALE TOTAL WAS $4.8 MILLION
WILLIAM BLAKE (1757-1827)Songs of Innocence Printed by the author, 1789. Estimate: $1,000,000-1,500,000. UPSDATE: THIS MADE $1,260,000
The Golconda Blue – the largest fancy vivid blue diamond ever to be offered at auction – comes up at Christie’s in Geneva on May 14 with an estimate of $35 – 50 million. Weighing an extraordinary 23.24 carats and perfectly mounted in a ring by JAR it ranks among the rarest and most important diamonds.
Tpear-shaped diamond boasts a remarkable provenance rooted in Indian Royalty. Yeshwant Rao Holkar, the Maharaja of Indore and a member of the Holkar dynasty, was known—alongside his wife—for a lifestyle defined by elegance and cosmopolitan sophistication in the 1920s and ’30s. A Knight of the Order of the Indian Empire, the Maharaja spent much of his time abroad, cultivating a strong affinity for Western art, design, and jewellery. In 1913, his father acquired the famed Indore Pear diamonds from Chaumet, marking the beginning of a long-standing relationship with the historic Parisian Maison. In 1923, during another visit to Chaumet, he commissioned a diamond bracelet set with his own 23-carat pear-shaped Golconda blue diamond.
Yeshwant Rao Holkar appointed Mauboussin as his official jeweller in 1933. Thereafter, Mauboussin reimagined much of the Maharaja’s collection and created the exceptional necklace including the Golconda Blue and the Indore Pears. Holkar collaborated with other iconic jewelers, including Harry Winston. In 1946, Mr. Winston purchased the Indore Pears from the Maharaja, and the following year, in January 1947, he acquired this 23-carat blue diamond. Winston later set it in a brooch alongside a matching 23-carat white diamond, which he sold to the Maharaja of Baroda. The brooch was subsequently reacquired by Mr. Winston and resold as a newly designed jewel to its current owner.
It is now at auction for the first time. UPDATE: THE STONE WAS PULLED FROM THE SALE AFTER IT WAS REPORTED THAT THE OWNERS DECIDED TO SELL IT WITHIN THE FAMILY.
