rembrandt

It has been revealed that casino mogul Steve Wynn is the proud new owner of the Rembrandt painting that sold for a record $33.2 million last week at Christie's in London. The 1658 "Portrait of a Man, Half-Length, With His Arms Akimbo," was sold over the telephone. Wynn has not officially revealed that he was the buyer but the NY Times reported that he called several art dealers and scholars to ask their opinions of the piece before the sale.

Wynn is famous for his art collection which includes excellent pieces by Rubens, Vermeer and Cezanne as well as the Picasso masterpiece, Le Reve. Wynn, who suffers from the eye disease retinitis pigmentosa, famously put his elbow through the picture in 2006.

Christie's and Sotheby's aren't being shy with the Old Masters. Pieces by Rembrandt, Raphael and Van Dyck are being offered at hefty prices, some records, that could bring in up to $133 million. If this happens, art collectors will have doubled last year's result ... and cast a strong vote in favor of an art market recovery.

The Christie's sale on Tuesday will include a portrait by Rembrandt and a sketch by Raphael. They are being estimated at 18 million pounds and 12 million pounds, respectively. According to Christie's, these are the highest estimates seen at auction, says Bloomberg News. The Sotheby's sale occurs on Tuesday, featuring a Van Dyck portrait that could fetch as much as 3 million pounds.

Unlike the volatile market for contemporary art, prices for the Old Masters have been relatively stable, as the supply is diminishing and demand is increasing.

According to Johnny van Haeften, an art dealer based in London, told Bloomberg News, "Prices at auction are very strong because there isn't much out there." He continues, "People don't want to sell at the moment. They're saying, 'If I let a painting go, where do I put the money? I'd rather keep it in a work of art.'" He bid unsuccessfully for two still life pieces by 17th century Dutch painter Adriaen Coorte. Both ultimately sold for more than 10 times their high-end presale estimates.

[Photo via Christie's]

A Rembrandt portrait that has been hidden in a private collection and not seen by the public for nearly 40 years will be sold at Christie's in London on December 8, reported The New York Times on September 18. "Portrait of a Man, Half-Length, With His Arms Akimbo," from 1658, depicts an unknown sitter, and experts at Christie's say it could garner $29.7 million to $41.2 million, the highest estimate ever for an old master painting coming to auction.

Although Christie's will say only that the painting is from a "distinguished private collection," the seller is known to be Barbara Piasecka Johnson, a Polish-born collector who once lived in Princeton, N.J., and now resides in Assisi, Italy. Johnson inherited about $300 million from her husband, J. Seward Johnson, son of the founder of the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical company, after he died in 1983.

The portrait was first shown publicly in 1847, when it was included in an exhibition at the British Institution in London, on loan from George Folliott, a notable British collector. His grandson sold it in 1930 at Sotheby's, where it brought £18,500, then a huge price. Soon after that it was acquired by George Huntington Hartford II, a supermarket heir who was in his 20s at the time. He donated it to Columbia University in 1958, and it hung in the president's office until 1968, when, because of student demonstrations, it was removed for safekeeping and put in storage.

In 1970 Columbia lent it to "Rembrandt After 300 Years," an exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts. That was the last time it was seen in public. Four years later Harold Diamond, a New York dealer, sold it to the Johnsons on behalf of the university, which used the proceeds to benefit an endowment fund.

Swann Galleries will be auctioning off  100 Important Old Master Prints and Old Master through Modern Prints on Thursday, May 4. The first part of the two-part auction includes many important prints from the16th century, including Dürer engravings such as Coat-of-Arms with a Skull,1503 (estimate $7,000 to $10,000), and St. Eustace, circa 1501 ($20,000 to $30,000) and Rembrandt etchings such as  Self Portrait with Curly Hair and White Collar: Bust, circa 1630 ($20,000 to $30,000). The afternoon session of prints includes  Manet’s Le Buveur d’absinthe, etching, 1862 ($7,000 to $10,000), the sweet and simple Cassatt’s Quietude, drypoint on Japan paper, fifth state, circa 1891 shown here ($25,000 to $35,000) and Odalisque, brasero et coupe de fruits, lithograph, 1929 ($40,000 to $60,000). You can view the art at Swann Galleries  April 29 to  May 3.

As per the New York Times, unidentified New York collector also known as Paddle No. L0179 paid a whopping $4.27 million for Rembrandt’s "Study of an Elderly Woman in a White Cap” dating to about 1640. Now this isn’t quite as much as when the last Rembrandt was sold to Stephen A. Wynn for $11.3 million, but it’s still a memorable figure. Who is this mysterious bidder? Well, that’s for Sotheby’s to know, and us to find out. The painting also has a decent amount of history to it such as various characteristics added to it after it was complete, and various restorations.

 

This month's Artnews focused on the increasing market for drawings. What was once just an entry point for younger or less wealthy collectors has become something much larger. This point is well-illustrated by the prices for drawings in the latest Old Master Drawings auction to be held on Tuesday at Christie's New York. The drawing shown here a male torso that is one of the Michelangelo drawings in private ownership may bring in well over $3 million. Drawings by Rembrandt, Rubens and Watteau are also up for bid.