Old Masters Auction Market

I- OLD MASTERS AUCTION MARKET

The year 2022 represented a record for Old Masters sales over the last 5 years, reaching $691.8 M.

In 2022, $229.2 Million worth of European Old Master works sold for more than $10 Million each. That total was nearly $100 Million more than the previous high in 2021, when sales of lots over $10 Million totalled $129.8 Million.

The top 3 lots by sale price in the genre in the last years were all by Sandro Botticelli, together totaling more than $186 Million. At Sotheby’s Master Paintings and Sculptures Part I evening sale in January 2021,  Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel, went for nearly $92.2 Million. At the 2022 Sotheby’s Master Paintings and Sculpture, Botticelli’s Man of Sorrows, sold for $45.4 Million. Madonna of the Magnificat, reached $48.5 Million in the evening auction of the late Microsoft cofounder Paul G. Allen, in 2022.

The US dominated the global European Old Master auction market in 2022, as the country’s auction houses realized a total of $296.1 Million in the genre – the highest total since 2018.  The UK, on the other hand, achieved less than half that amount in 2022 ($141.9 Million). This is explained in particular by an uneven distribution of the best-selling Old Masters lots. Of the 15 most expensive European Old Masters sold at auction in 2022, 7 were offered in the USA (including the top four), compared with 6 in the UK.

The French market generated $139.7 Million in sales of European Old Masters, an increase of almost 82% on the previous year. We note the sale of Jean Siméon Chardin‘s Panier de fraises des bois, which fetched €24.4 Million at an auction of Old Master and 19th-century works at Artcurial, and a rediscovered Michelangelodrawing, A nude man (after Masaccio) and two figures behind him, which fetched almost €23.2 Million at Christie’s Paris.

If we analyze the totals realized in the half-years of each year since 2018, total sales in the first half of 2023 reached a record total of $211.3 Million, an increase of over $21 Million (around 11% in value) on the previous peak reached in the first quarter of 2021. It should be noted that between 2016 and 2022, Christie’s only held sales of Old Master drawings in New York in the Q1, shifting Old Master painting auctions to its “Classic Week” during the second quarter. Only this year, Christie’s returned to a schedule aligned with Sotheby’s January European Old Masters sales in Q1 of 2023.

II- CONTEMPORIZING THE OLD MASTERS

Old Masters is the smallest sector of the Fine Art auction market. To make it more attractive or give it greater visibility, it is often combined with Contemporary or Modern art at auctions, fairs or exhibitions.

European Old Master Paintings in auction houses’ Impressionist, Modern and Postwar & Contemporary sales.

Although each auction house has specialized sales for Old Masters, it is common to see lots in this category presented at Impressionist, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary auctions. In November 2017, at a Christie’s New York Sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art, Leonardo da Vinci‘s Salvator Mundi sold for over $450 Million. Sotheby’s New York included Peter Paul Rubens‘ Portrait of a Man in Mars in its Modern Evening sale last May, where the painting sold for a hammer price of $22.5 Million.

Art fairs combine Contemporary Art and Old Masters.

The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), originally devoted to ancient art, has for many years included works of modern and contemporary art in its exhibition. In 2015, the fair presented eight works of contemporary art in the middle of its traditional fair in Maastricht. This concept was repeated the following year, when an exhibition featuring 7 contemporary artists was held. TEFAF has since opened a second annual fair in New York, combining modern and contemporary art with design objects.

Before announcing its definitive closure at the beginning of the year, the last editions of the Masterpiece London fair had taken a similar direction, mixing ancient and contemporary art.

Art galleries have also made the link between the classic and the contemporary art.

In 2018, David Zwirner collaborated with old masters dealer Nicholas Hall on the exhibition Endless Enigma: Eight Centuries of Fantastic Art, with more than 90 works by artists, spanning different eras, from Hieronymous Bosch, Francisco de Goya and Gustave Moreau to Francis Alÿs, Michaël Borremans and Lisa Yuskavage. In December 2022, as part of Master Drawings New York, Sprüth Magers presented an exhibition dedicated to the work of Contemporary artist Karen Kilimnik alongside Renaissance works – from the 17th to the 19th century.

III- ULTRA-CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS INSPIRED BY THE OLD MASTERS

The Ultra-Contemporary art market, which has been booming in recent years, has seen the emergence of artists inspired by the old European masters.

Kehinde Wiley (b. 1977)

Wiley’s use of Old Master motifs to depict Black subjects. His lush, narratively rich canvases draw on textile patterns and the compositional tenets of Old Masters such as Peter Paul Rubens and Jacques-Louis David. He was selected by President Barack Obama in October 2017 to paint his official portrait for the National Portrait Gallery.

Anna Weyant (b. 1995)

Canadian artist Anna Weyant’s figurative paintings blend influence from the Dutch Golden Age with an awareness of contemporary popular culture and social media. She joigned Gagosian in May 2022. Last year, at Sotheby’s “The Now,” evening auction Anna Weyant landed an auction high with Falling Woman (2020) selling for$1.6 Million, which was well above the $200.000 high estimate. This beat her previous record set at Christie’s the week before, with Summertime (2020), sold for $1.5 Million. Her tunevor in 2022 was $7.7 Million. 

Flora Yukhnovich (b. 1990)

Flora Yukhnovich is a British painter, who is inspired by the rococo aesthetic. She set a new auction record in 2022 with $3.6 Million at auction (March 2022, Sothebys London), for Warm, Wet ‘N’ Wild (2020). In 2022, her turnover was $11.8 Million. 

Ewa Juszkiewicz (b. 1984)

One of the most celebrated contemporary Polish painters, Ewa Juszkiewicz confronts stereotypical perceptions of women’s beauty in classical European painting. She is represented by Gagosian and Almine Rech. In 2022, her painting Portrait of a Lady (After Louis Leopold Boilly) was sold for $1.5 Million, well above its $300.000 high estimate at Christie’s 21st-century evening sale. The same year, her turnover was $5.1 Million.