As part of Christie's Classic Week in London, the 'Old Masters Part I' auction took place last Tuesday and featured 24 exquisite lots. All but four were sold, achieving a total of £43,594,800 ($55,060,232; including premiums). More than half of this impressive sum came from the two top lots of the auction, each setting a new record for their artist.
Eagerly anticipated and estimated at £10-15 million with a third-party guarantee, Titian's early masterpiece Rest on the Flight into Egypt was offered as the eighth lot. The painting, like its motif, has had an eventful journey, traveling through Venice, London, Brussels, Vienna, Paris, and finally Longleat House in Wiltshire. From the 17th century onwards, it was owned by Habsburg archdukes and emperors until 1809, when Napoleon took it to Paris during his Egyptian campaign. Six years later, it returned to Vienna. In the mid-19th century, it entered the collection of John Alexander Thynne, 4th Marquess of Bath, at Longleat House in Wiltshire, where it remained until consigned to auction. There was a temporary interruption in 1995 when the painting was stolen, but it was recovered seven years later by private detective Charles Hill at a bus stop in London.
Related: Art Detective Returns Stolen Van Gogh Painting
The £17,560,000 ($22,178,280; including buyer's premium) realized now represents a new auction record for Titian, surpassing his previous top price of $16,882,500 when A Sacra Conversazione: the Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria was sold at Sotheby's New York in 2011.
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A new auction record was also established for the Flemish master Quentin Matsys, whose late work The Madonna of the Cherries was expected to fetch £8-12 million. Ultimately, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, where the painting will be exhibited in the coming weeks, acquired it for £10,660,000 ($13,463,580; including buyer's premium). This sale represents a significant price increase compared to the previous auction record for a work by Matsys, set at Lempertz in Cologne in December 2020, where Mary in Prayer sold for €1.58 million (c. $1.7 million; including buyer's premium).
Related: Restored 'Madonna of the Cherries' to Star at Old Masters Auction
Despite these successes, the painting Mares and Foals in an extensive landscape by the eminent British horse painter George Stubbs, valued at £7-10 million, remained unsold.
