NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s annual Masters Week auctions kicked off tonight (Wednesday) in New York with a sale dedicated to A. Alfred Taubman’s collection of Old Master paintings and drawings. The sale totaled $24.1 million / £16.8 million, exceeding its low estimate of $21.2 million*, and setting six auction records in the process. Highlights of the sale included:

Valentin de Boulogne
The Crowning with Thorns
Sold for $5.2 Million / £3.6 Million
WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR THE ARTIST
Wednesday’s auction was led by Valentin de Boulogne’s The Crowning with Thorns, which soared to $5.2 million – more than double its high estimate of $2 million. The painting was the highlight of Mr. Taubman’s spectacular collection of Baroque pictures, and a masterpiece of Baroque naturalism. Painted in Rome in 1615 or shortly thereafter, the impressive work – measuring nearly 5 feet tall – is among the first known pictures painted by Valentin de Boulogne, Caravaggio’s most accomplished French follower and arguably his greatest acolyte.

Raffaello Sanzio, called Raphael
Profile Portrait of Valerio Belli, Bust Length, Facing Left
Sold for $3.3 Million / £2.3 Million
Following a prolonged battle between two determined bidders, Raphael’s Portrait of Valerio Belli, sold for $3.3 million (estimate $2/3 million). Dated 1517 and measuring just 4¾ inches in diameter, Portrait of Valerio Belli represents one of the last paintings by Raphael remaining in private hands. The intimate portrait – unique in the artist’s oeuvre as the only known profile bust representation – depicts Raphael’s friend Valerio Belli, one of the leading metalists and gem engravers of the day in Rome. The notable provenance of the work includes more than a century descended through Belli’s family, and more than five decades owned by and descended from Sir Kenneth Clark – the celebrated collector, art historian and presenter of the BBC series Civilisation – before being acquired by Mr. Taubman in 1987.

Thomas Gainsborough
The Blue Page
Sold for $3.3 Million / £2.3 Million
Demonstrating his ravishing, brilliant brushwork, Thomas Gainsborough’s The Blue Page stands as a prime example of the artist at his most ambitious and experimental. The work has long been connected to Gainsborough’s famous painting The Blue Boy that is now in The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California; in fact, recent research identifies the sitter in both pictures as Gainsborough Dupont – Gainsborough’s nephew – and dates the Taubman picture after The Blue Boy. This establishes it as a work in its own right, likely a private, un-commissioned piece, where the artist could investigate freely with color, movement and spontaneity.