London - Christie’s London announce a new, expanded, hybrid Classic Week, a marquee series of 12 auctions to take place throughout the month of July 2020. Comprising eight on-line sales, including a creative collaboration between Old Masters and Post War Art, Classic Week will also feature four live auctions culminating with an innovative new Classic Art Evening Sale: Antiquity to 20^th Century on 29 July.

The expanded Classic Week will celebrate craftsmanship and the story of creativity across time from antiquity to the 21st century, and across artistic media including Old Master and 19^th Century Paintings, Drawings and Prints; Sculpture and Antiquities; Books and Manuscripts; and the full diversity of Decorative Arts.

Karl Hermanns, Global Managing Director, Classic Art Group comments, “Christie’s Classic Art business has seen great success in the new environment of the last two months, with live auctions converted to on-line only sales, creative new on-line theme sales, and last week in Paris we held the first live auctions by an international auction house since lockdown. Our on-line only New York Classic Week is live for bidding now. We are excited to announce London’s July marquee Classic Week in this new, expanded, hybrid format and featuring two innovative new sale concepts: a creative on-line collaboration between Old Masters and Post War Art and a new cross-category Classic Art Evening Sale: Antiquity to 20^th Century”.

July 2020 Classic Week Calendar

A lead lot from the Classic Art Evening Sale has recently been announced, (illustrated above), Mary Queen of Scots’ prayer book, offered on 29 July, (estimate: £250,000 - £350,000). An unpublished witness to the brilliant patronage of a powerful woman in 16^th-century France, the prayer book is illuminated and decorated with an impressive cycle of forty miniatures painted with the utmost subtlety by the Master of François de Rohan, one of the most sought-after artists of the court of King Francis I (r. 1515-1547). This sale presents a rare opportunity for collectors to acquire a significant addition in terms of the very limited number of illuminated manuscripts that can be directly connected to Mary Stuart.

For the full press release on the Mary Queen of Scot’s prayer book please click here

Highlights from the auctions will be on view at King Street in the lead up to the sales, and available to browse online from 1 July at www.christies.com All necessary measures to protect our London visitors and our staff will be in place, taking into account government guidelines in the UK.