29Jan/110
An Orientalist Revival and Online Fervor Enlivened Christie’s $36.7 Million Old Masters Auction (ARTINFO)
ARTINFO - With some high-flying prices, yesterday's Old Masters and 19th-century sale at Christie's saw brisk interest in French and Italian artists, with especially strong prices for painters such as Jean-Léon Gérome and Jean-François Millet, who are not exactly household names. With total sales of $36.7 million, the two-session auction narrowly missed its overall low estimate of $38.6 million. Alongside a very respectable sell-through rate of 70 percent by lot and by value, the sale featured a new record price for 18th-century Italian artist Luca Carlevarijs, whose "View of the Molo, Venice, Looking West," was the top lot at $4 million, hitting its $3.5 to $4.5 million estimate dead-center. View full post on Yahoo! News: Arts