A Family of Cheetahs in a Rocky Landscape attributed to Basawan, Mughal India, circa 1575-80. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £10,245,000 (€11,689,545), 14 times over estimate and a world record auction price for a classical Indian or Islamic painting.
A landmark auction of exceptional paintings from the personal collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan at Christie’s London on October 28 will present the market with an opportunity to acquire masterpieces of Indian and Persian painting. Comprising 95 works, the sale features the paintings that Prince Sadruddin and Princess Catherine Aga Khan chose to live with at their home, Chateau de Bellerive, on the shores of Lake Geneva. This is truly a personal collection that reflects their impeccable taste and discerning eye for quality, rarity and beauty. The group includes some of the most important examples of their kind in any collection in the world, many having been studied and published by leading scholars of the 20th century and featured in ground-breaking exhibitions. With estimates ranging from £2,000 to £1,000,000, this personal collection is expected to realise in excess of £8 million.
BLAISE PASCAL (1623-1662) – LA PASCALINE Christie’s Images Ltd., Anna Buklovska UPDATE: THE SALE DID NOT GO AHEAD AFTER A PARIS COURT PROVISIONALLY STOPPED THE MACHINE FROM BEING EXPORTED.
Described by Christie’s as the most important scientific instrument ever offered at auction La Pascaline – the first attempt in history to substitute the human mind with a machine – comes up at auction in Paris on November 19 with an estimate of €2 million – €3 million.
Author of a Traité des Sons [treatise on the communication of sounds] at the age of 12, of an essai de géométrie [essay on conic sections] at 16, Blaise Pascal developed the first calculating machine in history at the age of 19. He did so to assist his father, Etienne Pascal, President of the Cour des Aides de Normandie [Board of Excise]. As such, Etienne Pascal was responsible for re-organising the province’s tax revenues – a task requiring countless mathematical operations, accounting calculations and other topographical surveys. To simplify the process, Blaise Pascal designed calculating machines. For the first time in history mental arithmetic had been mechanised. Blaise Pascal designed three types of machines: one for decimal calculations (additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions), one for accounting (for monetary calculations) and one for surveying (for calculating distances).
Only nine original models of this major scientific and technical revolution remain in existence, and nearly all are held in museums across Europe: These include a model in Clermont-Ferrand, a model in Dresden, a model in Bonn belonging to the IBM collection, and a later version at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris. This is the only one in private hands, the only known model dedicated to survey calculations and this particular 17th century arithmetic machine is still fully functional. It will highlight the the Bibliothèque Léon Parcé sale.
THE MELLON BLUE – Fancy Vivid Blue pear-shaped cut diamond of 9.51 carats. UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR US$25.59 MILLION
The Mellon Blue, a blue diamond of 9.51 carats with an estimate of $20-30 million will lead Christie’s sale of magnificent jewels in Geneva on November 11. One of the finest coloured diamonds to appear on the market the stone – then set as a pendent – belonged to Rachel Lambert Mellon, better known as Bunny Mellon (1910-2014), an American horticulturalist, philanthropist, and art collector. Bunny Mellon was a symbol of elegance and sophistication whose taste extended to jewellery selected with the same care and sensitivity brought to interiors and gardens. Bunny Mellon’s horticultural vision can be seen at the White House. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy asked Mellon to redesign the White House Rose Garden where Mellon created more open space for public ceremonies and introduced American species of plants to the garden. Elsewhere, in France, Mellon created a landscape design for the home of Hubert de Givenchy, who was a close friend, and assisted with the restoration of the “Potager du Roi” at the Chateau de Versailles. Graded Internally Flawless and recently set as a ring the diamond is remarkable for both its intense colour and its extraordinary purity.
PETER DOIG – Country Rock, 1998-99 UPDATE: THIS SOLD FOR £9.2 MILLION
The Collection of Ole Faarup will be a highlight at Christie’s 20th/21st Century Art Marquee Week in October. Comprising in the region of 140 lots and with an overall estimate of around £16,000,000–22,000,000 it will be offered in a series of sales, the 20th/21st Century London evening sale on October 15, the Post-War and Contemporary Art day sale on October 16 and a dedicated online auction from October 8–21. Assembled over fifty years it is a striking testament to Ole Faarup’s passion for contemporary art and emerging artists, which made him one of the most respected art collectors of his generation.
Proceeds will benefit The Ole Faarup Art Foundation which carries forward his vision to nurture and support future generations of artists. Inspired by five decades of passionate and thoughtful collecting, the Foundation is dedicated to helping younger artists by placing their work in museums and public collections in Denmark and around the world. A special focus for the Foundation is to support Danish artists up to the age of 50, including those from the Faroe Islands and Greenland – one of its key objectives will be facilitating their first museum or kunsthalle exhibition abroad.
Piet Mondrian – Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue
Auction house Christie’s has projected auction sales of $2.1 billion in the first half of 2025. Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Large Red Plane, Bluish Gray, Yellow, Black and Blue from the Leonard & Louise Riggio Collection sold for $47.6 million to become most valuable work of art sold at auction so far. Key performance indicators, including overall sell through rate at 88% and hammer versus the low estimate index at 115%, have all showed strength and demonstrated the market leadership of Christie’s. The global auction house sold seven of the top 10 artworks and all top four works of art sold at auction in the six months. In addition, overall auction sales in the leading 20/21 category were stable to last year at $1.3 billion. Luxury sales were up 29%, which includes car sales at Gooding Christie’s (up 12% without Gooding Christie’s). In Jewels, Christie’s sold nine of the top 10 jewels at auction in the first half of the year. This has driven growth of 25%. The Old Master Group drove a 15% rise in auction sales in the first half of the year. Confidence for this continued momentum in the second half has been demonstrated by the record breaking $43.9 million sale in London of Canaletto’s masterpiece Venice, the Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day.
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.
