The Old Master Paintings & Sculpture and Old Master Drawings auctions inaugurated the New York appointment of Sotheby's Master Week totaling a total of 31.8 million dollars.
Christopher Apostle, head of the Old Master Paintings department in New York, comments: “High level awards for high quality pieces are a demonstration of how much the market appreciates and immediately understands the value of these masterpieces.
This applies both to famous names such as Rubens and Botticelli as well as to more connoisseur artists such as Drost and de Coster, who set the World Record. Numerous offers from private collectors for Dutch works of the seventeenth century and for Italian and Flemish masterpieces”.
The work: Sir Peter Paul Rubens STUDY OF A HORSE WITH A RIDER, Estimated $1 / 1,5 million was sold for $5.075.000
The New York appointment made it possible to increase Peter Paul Rubens' catalogue: the work, which was previously credited to a follower of Anthony Van Dyck, contributed to expanding the artist's catalogue.
Adam de Coster's excellent Nocturne set a new record for the artist, surpassing the previous one set by Sotheby's in 1992. Coming from the Safra Collection this work remains one of the most significant achievements of recent decades for the de Coster catalog .
In the auction of ancient drawings we note the sale of an ink on paper by Lelio Orsi which went to a private American collection.
