NEW YORK.- Christie’s New York Spring 2005 sale of Old Master Pictures takes place on Wednesday January 26 at Rockefeller Center and features over 220 lots - the auction is expected to realize in excess of $20 million. Split over a morning and an afternoon session, the sale contains three old master collections sourced from the United States and from Europe – and also includes significant 18th Century vedute paintings by Francesco Guardi and Giovanni Paolo Panini.

The Denys Sutton Collection - Denys Sutton, editor of Apollo Magazine for a quarter of a century, was a man of wide knowledge and many interests. Taking over the magazine editorship in 1962, Sutton succeeded in giving the long-established magazine a new role as an elegant and serious counterpoint to the Burlington Magazine. Sutton was a prolific journalist, regularly writing for the Financial Times, the Daily Telegraph and Country Life – and curated many memorable exhibitions, including France in the Eighteenth Century at the Royal Academy in 1968. He passed away in 1971, and Christie’s offers works from the Sutton Collection during a series of 2005 auctions – beginning with a selection of his Old Master Paintings and Drawings in January. 11 Sutton pictures are offered, of which the most important is The Penitent Mary Magdalen by Filippino Lippi, a beautifully preserved and hauntingly poetic work by one of the greatest painters of late quattrocento Florence (estimate: $800,000-1,200,000) – this picture was one of the less familiar stars of the recent exhibition of Botticelli and Lippi at Florence. Other early Florentine works include a characteristic portable tabernacle by Agnolo Gaddi, The Madonna of Humility with Saint Catherine and Saint John the Baptist (estimate: $250,000-350,000), and a Crucifixion by the son of Giotto, Franceso di Giotto di Bondone (estimate: $200,000-300,000). Other works include a Sacra Conversazione in a landscape by Venetian cinquecento master Bonifazio Veronese (estimate: $200,000-300,000); and a bozzetto for a villa ceiling decorated by Carlo Carlone in 1745/46 represents the settocento (estimate: $150,000-200,000).

Property of the Hispanic Society of America - The Hispanic Society of America, founded in 1904, has evolved into one of the world’s premier centers for Hispanic research. Situated in upper Manhattan, the Society was created by Archer Milton Huntington, one of America’s most privileged heirs, who passed up a lucrative career in the family business for the singular pursuit of acquiring art. He began the Society with 23 paintings, of which most were 16th and 17th century Spanish portraits – and his intimate knowledge and commitment to Spanish art and culture distinguished him from his fellow art collectors.

Christie’s offers four works, including three pictures acquired for the Society recently reattributed to Italian and French masters. Portrait of an Olivetan father, member of the Pueroni family by Luigi Miradori (esimate: $100,000-150,000) was acquired by Huntington in 1911; in 1912, he purchased Portrait of the art dealer François Langlois, by an anonymous Northern painter in Rome, circa 1630 (estimate: $80,000-120,000); and a pair of saints, A male saint; and Saint Agnes which have recently been attributed to leading early Renaissance master, Spinello Aretino (estimate: $60,000-80,000).