Classic Week: London | Christie’s

Our Classic Week Evening sales concluded with spectacular results in Old Masters Part I and The Exceptional Sale, which realised a combined total of £50,788,420. In the strongest Old Master paintings sale in over a decade, rare masterpieces representing six centuries of European art were offered fresh to the market with remarkable provenance. Two auction world records were set: Titian’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt selling for £17,560,000, having attracted worldwide interest and admiration in the run-up to the sale, and Quentin Metsys’s masterpiece and landmark rediscovery The Madonna of the Cherries, which made £10,660,000. Frans Hals’s endearing depiction of a gentleman of the de Wolff family, sold on the instruction of the Viscount Cowdray and his estate, realised £5,715,000.

A Greek bronze head of Eros led The Exceptional Sale at £1,855,000 — selling for more than twice its high estimate — followed by an Imperial Chinese clock from the Nezu collection, which sold for £756,000. Strong prices and high sell-through rates were witnessed in the day sales: Old Master Prints, Old Masters Part II: Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings and Watercolours, and Antiquities. The results across all sales underscore the continued strength of the market and high demand for masterpieces and works from private collections.

The second phase of our Classic Week auction series continues with the Valuable Books and Manuscripts sale on 10 July. Highlights include an early pair of English table globes that transport you to the Age of Exploration, the beautiful de Gouvetz Hours illuminated by Maître François and a 1962 letter from Ringo Starr announcing he has joined The Beatles. The auction also includes highlights from the library of Prime Minister William Gladstone, including his copy of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1776).

We invite you to explore all this and more at our King Street galleries until 9 July.