OLD MASTER & BRITISH DRAWINGS SALES TOTAL $6,198,012
New York — There was spirited bidding from North America, Europe, and China during Old Master & British Drawings, which made a total of $1,822,212, which is 149% hammer over low estimate, with more than 10% of bidders and buyers new to the Old Master Drawings category at Christie’s. Leading the sale was Johannes Wierix’s Creation and Early History of Man in twenty scenes, a series of brown ink on vellum drawings that made $403,000. Other highlights include, a figure study of a Seminude woman seated among reeds by François Boucher, which fetched $277,200; a sheet containing Two studies of an actor in the costume of Crispin by JeanAntoine Watteau, which realized $182,700; and the Crucifixion of Christ by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, which made $176,400. This sale follows Remastered: Old Masters from the Collection of J.E. Safra, which took place the day before, and included five drawings lots, among them Jean-Baptiste Oudry’s album of drawings illustrating the fables of La Fontaine that made a world-record price for the artist, $2,700,000.
Christie’s International Head of Old Master Drawings, Stijn Alsteens said, “This is an extraordinary result for two days of Old Master and British Drawings sales, and further proof of the strength of this market and of Christie’s position within it.”
