Is what may be a harbinger of what’s to come in Christie’s Impressionist sale next month that includes the collection of Elizabeth Taylor, the late actress’s Franz Hals painting more than doubled its high estimate at the auction house’s Old Masters sale in New York yesterday. The 17th century “Portrait of A Man”—the only Old Masters painting owned by Taylor—was estimated at $700,000-$1m, but sold for $2.1m.
The top seller at the auction was Tiepolo’s “Arrival of Henry III at the Villa Contarini, which realized $5.9m. Confiscated in Paris by the Nazis for the collection of Hermann Goering, the painting was repatriated to France in 1946 by Baron Edmond de Rothschild. Another strong seller, at $3.33m, was a 17th century work by Gerrit Dou, “A Young Lady Playing a Clavichord.” In addition to the painting by Hals mentioned above, works by van Dyck and Rubens also sold in excess of $2m. In all, the sale realized $34,339,750.
