The auction was led by Andalusian Horse and Wooded Landscape by Anthony van Dyck which realised £3.428.000 / $4.350.132 / €4.134.168. This “two-faced” work captured the interest of collectors and enthusiasts around the world, not only with the first large-scale depiction of a lone horse, but with an added element of rarity and significance: its only surviving oil landscape on the reverse of the original canvas. Elsewhere, the sale set a new world auction record price for a work by Francesco Hayez.
Top lots include: Tiepolo, Brughel II and Hayez
Puncinella guilty by Giambattista Tiepolo, sold for £2.460.000/$3.121.740/ € 2.966.760, having been owned by the same family for nearly a century, since 1934 (estimate: £1.000.000-1.500.000). One of only two known paintings of Pulcinella by the artist, the pendant to this work is in Leeds Castle, England.
The Sermon of St. John the Baptist by Pieter Brueghel II, sold for £1.613.000 / $ 2.046.897 / €1.945.278 (estimate: £800.000-1.200.000). Up for auction for the first time in over 150 years, having been in the same family since 1855, this is one of the finest treatments of Pieter Brueghel the Younger's most successful and popular large-scale religious composition.
Bathsheba by Francesco Hayez It sold for £1.492.000 / $1.893.348 / € 1.799.352 (estimate: £600.000-800.000). This museum-quality work sets a new world auction record for the artist.
