Laocoön leads $68m Old Master Sales at Sotheby's London

LONDON.- In 1506, when the legendary ancient marble sculpture of Laocoön and his sons was unearthed in Rome, crowds gathered to admire this ‘singular miracle of art’. Tonight at Sotheby’s, a rare early bronze cast of that same sculpture generated similar excitement. The first lot in an evening that totalled £51.3m / $68m (est. £32.1-46.4m), the Hamilton Laocoön was pursued by four determined bidders over the course of fifteen minutes. Among them was a private collector from Asia and a Contemporary collector who had never before bid in this field, represented on the phone by Sotheby's Chairman of Modern & Contemporary Art, Alex Branczik. Together, the four contenders took the final price to £13.6m / $18.1m (est. £2-3 million) - the second highest price for any pre-Modern sculpture sold at auction and the highest price ever paid for a Neoclassical sculpture at auction.

“This evening’s results represent a resounding endorsement of the power of Old Masters to captivate collectors across generations, tastes and geographies. From the monumental Hamilton Laocoön to Landseer’s magnificent Scene in Braemar and Francesco Guardi’s luminous ‘turcheria’, tonight demonstrated the vitality, confidence and international reach of this market. What was particularly striking was the breadth of participation throughout the sale, with spirited competition across categories, periods and price points, culminating in an extraordinary number of auction records. These results speak not only to the strength of the market, but to a deeply felt desire among collectors to engage with objects that connect us to centuries of artistic achievement and human creativity. It is immensely gratifying to have witnessed such enthusiasm in London, reaffirming its role as one of the world's great centres for art and collecting.” -- Elisabeth Lobkowicz, Head of Department, Old Masters Paintings, Europe

KEY FACTS & FIGURES

• Combined total for the evening: £51.3m / $68m (est. £32.1-46.4m)

• The highest total for an evening of Old Master sales at Sotheby’s London since July 2019 and the third highest total in a decade.

• The Hamilton Laocoön: £13.6m / $18.1m (est. £2-3m). Sold in a single-lot sale.

• Total for the adjacent Old Masters sale: £37.7m / $50m (est. £30.1-43.4m)

• Up 160% on last July.

• Over half of the works sold achieved prices in excess of their high estimate.

• Nearly a quarter of lots offered this evening set new records, with 11 auction records set in total, including two in sterling: Auguste-Jean Marie Carbonneaux (Laocoön), Hans Memling, Master of the Prodigal Son, Bernard van Orley, Cosimo Rosselli, Jacopo Negretti, called Palma il Vecchio, Gillis Mostaert the Elder, Michiel van Musscher, Foggini, Giovanni Antonio Guardi and Sir Edwin Landseer.

• Cross-category bidding: Contemporary collectors bid on the Hamilton Laocoön, the Pieter Claesz., and at least four other works.

• Earlier, sales of sculpture and works on paper brought a combined total of £3.2m / $4.3m. Sales continue tomorrow with Old Master Paintings and Works on Paper Day Auction and 19th & 20th Century European and British Art.

TOP FIVE PRICES OF THE EVENING

"The Hamilton Laocoon is one of the greatest Neoclassical sculptures ever to come to market. It's been a privilege for Sotheby's to unveil its importance to a wider public." --- Christopher Mason, Sotheby’s European Head of Sculpture and Works of Art

The Hamilton Laocoön: a rare early full-scale bronze cast of the legendary antique sculpture, this extraordinary version, made in Paris in 1817 by Auguste-Jean Marie Carbonneaux, boasted an exceptional history of ownership, having belonged to William Beckford, the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, and the Duke of Hamilton.

• Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn’s Let The Little Children Come Unto Me, a rare early history painting recently restored and providing a fascinating insight into the artist's practice, sold for £8m / $10.6m (est. £8-12m).

• Sir Edwin Landseer’s monumental Scene in Braemar, the sister painting to British icon The Monarch of the Glen and unseen in public for more than two decades, set a new auction record for the artist at £5.9m / $7.9m (est. £3-4m).

• Hans Memling’s The Virgin Mary Nursing the Christ Child, one of the last and finest devotional works by the artist remaining in private hands, set a new auction record for the artist at £3.5m / $4.6m (est. £3-4m).

• Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s Village scene with peasants carousing and dancing around a maypole sold for £3m / $4m (est. £2.5-3.5m).

• Sandro Botticelli and Associate’s The Virgin and Child with the young Saint John the Baptist, never before seen in public and one of only two known versions of the Madonna del Roseto, realised £2.5m / $3.4m (est. £2-3m).

STANDOUT MOMENTS AND RESULTS

Nearly 55% of lots sold achieved prices in excess of their estimates, with many works exceeding their estimates by multiple factors:

• Bernard van Orley’s intimate Virgin and Child sold for £2m / $2.7m (est. £1.5-2m), a new auction record for the artist.

• Ivan Aivazovsky’s Venice, San Giorgio Maggiore achieved £1.5m / $2m (est. £500,000-700,000).

• Giovanni Battista Foggini’s marble reliefs, showing Christ and the Samaritan Woman; Apollo and Daphne sold for £1.3m / $1.8m (est. £600,000-1m).

• Cosimo Rosselli's Christ as the Man of Sorrows sold for £960,000 / $1.3m (est. £450,000-600,000), an auction record for the artist.

• Palma il Vecchio's A shepherd and two women, last seen at auction 60 years ago, set a new auction record for the artist at £742,000 / $984,237 (est. £600,000-800,000).

• Seven large copper panels depicting The Seven Days of Creation, dating to the early 17th century and made by an unknown author, were pursued by 6 bidders to sell for over four times their high estimate, selling for £768,000 / $1m (est. £120,000-180,000).

• Giovanni Antonio Guardi’s The Greek Favourite in the Harem set a new auction record for the artist at £614,400 / $814,541, in its auction debut (est. £200,000-300,000).

• Petr Petrovich Vereshchagin’s A panoramic view of Saint Petersburg sold for £448,000 / $593,936 (est. £200,000-300,000).

• John Glover’s panoramic view of Tivoli, one of the artist’s most important, sold for £332,800 / $441,210 (est. £100,000-150,000).

• Gerard ter Borch's Portrait of a lady with a fan was pursued by 7 bidders, who drove the final sale price to £307,200 / $407,270 (est. £100,000-150,000).

• Michiel van Musscher’s An interior scene with Eva Visscher sold for £307,200 / $407,270 (est. £200,000-300,000).

• Master of the Prodigal Son’s The Adoration of the Magi, never sold at auction before and unseen for over 40 years, set a new auction record for the artist at £256,000 / $339,392 (est. £200,000-300,000).

• Thomas Gainsborough’s Portrait of Mrs Sloper 'Spiritualised' soared to almost four times its high estimate, £230,400 / $305,453 (est. £40,000-60,000).

• Willem Key’s Portrait of a lady, aged 22, three-quarter length, wearing a black dress, sold for £204,800 / $271,514 (est. £100,000-150,000).