Sotheby’s Old Masters Week SalesBring a Strong Total of $73.1 Million

WORKS BY CANALETTO, LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER,FRA BARTOLOMMEO, SIMONE MARTINIAND BOTTICELLI AND STUDIOACHIEVE PRICES OVER $4 MILLION

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Wednesday’s Auction of Old Master DrawingsHighlighted by an Italian Renaissance Portrait Sold to theJ. Paul Getty Museum for $1.4 Million

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27 January 2012 –

Sotheby’s annual Old Masters Weekauctions in New York concluded today with a strongcumulative total of $73,052,668. Thursday’s sale of Important Old Master Paintings & Sculpture brought$62,081,477, and was highlighted by five remarkablepictures that achieved prices over $4 million – led byCanaletto’s

View of the Churches of the Redentore andSan Giacomo…

from the Estate of Lady Forte that sold for $5,682,500 (pictured right, est. $5/7 million*),and Lucas Cranach the Elder’s portrait

Lucretia

that

brought $5,122,500 (pictured below, est. $4/6 million).On Wednesday, the auction of Old Master Drawings achieved $5,640,813 – the highest result for an auctionin this category at Sotheby’s New York since 1998. The sale featured an Italian Renaissance

Portrait of aYoung Man

attributed to Piero del Pollaiuolo, which sold to the J. Paul Getty museum in California for$1,398,500 – well above its $400,000 high estimate (pictured bottom). Friday’s auctions of Masterworksand Old Master & 19

Century European Art added a combined $5,330,387 to the week’s total.

For Immediate Release

Press Release New York

New York

Regarding Thursday’s auction, George Wachter, Co-Chairman of Sotheby’sOld Master Paintings department, and Christopher Apostle, Head of Sotheby’sOld Master Paintings department in New York, commented: “We are pleasedwith the results of this week’s sale, which again demonstrated that works of highquality and condition that are fresh to the market continue to bring exceptionalprices – evidenced by each of the top ten works in our auction achieving over $2million. In the days before the sale we saw broad geographical interest in ourexhibition, which translated to bidding from Europe, North and South America,and Asia. We are particularly encouraged by the strong demand for Italian painting, with early pictures and goldgrounds performing particularly well.”

Important Old Master Paintings & Sculpture – 26 January

Thursday’s sale began with several top prices for Italian Renaissance paintings,including two new artist records: one for Fra Bartolommeo, whose

Saint Jeromein the Wilderness

from the collection of the late Dodie Rosekrans more thandoubled its pre-sale high estimate of $2 million to achieve $4,898,500, and onefor Simone Martini, whose rediscovered work

The Virgin Annunciate

from theearly-14

century brought $4,114,500 (est. $3/4 million). Also leading the saleearly was

Madonna and Child with the Young Baptist, Saint FrancisReceiving the Stigmata in the Distance

by Sandro Botticelli and Studio, whichsold for $4,562,500 above a high estimate of $1.5 million. The panel was partof the famous collection of William Fuller Maitland by the mid-19

century.In addition to the Venetian view painting by Canaletto, the Estate of Lady Forte also featured Pieter de Hooch’s elegant and engaging

Interior with a Child Feeding a Parrot,

which brought$3,666,500 above a high estimate of $2 million. And another artistrecord was set at the end of the morning session, when Charles-Antoine Coypel’s

Roland and the Marriage of Angelique

achieved$3,554,500 – well in excess of its $900,000 high estimate.The selection of sculpture on offer in the afternoon was led by

An Important Pair of Italian Glazed Terracotta Relief

Portraits of Youths by Andrea Della Robbia

that

sold for $1,650,500 (est. $400/600,000)

The twoexceptionally fine portrait roundels probably represent young Florentine noblemen, and were sculpted inFlorence

circa

1470-80. Sculpture in today’s sale was also highlighted by

An Important English WhiteMarble Portrait Bust of Alexander Pope, Attributed to Louis François Roubiliac

circa

1741 that brought$362,500 (est. $300/500,000).

Old Master Drawings – 25 January

In addition to the

Portrait of a Young Man

that led Wednesday’s sale (picturedright), works that well exceeded their pre-sale expectations included: ThomasGainsborough’s

Seated Woman,

which brought $314,500 above a high estimateof $150,000; an album of 17

-century text and illustrations by a follower of SirPeter Paul Rubens that more than tripled its high estimate of $90,000 in achieving$302,500; and a double-sided sheet of studies attributed to CornelisEngebrechtsz that sold for $158,500 (est. $15/20,000).

*Pre-sale estimates do not include buyer’s premium

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