Sisi :
Sales for first half of 2017 set records
Dorotheum, German-speaking Europe’s largest auction house, once again set records at its auctions during the first half of 2017. The spring’s top three sales illustrate the globally trusted auction house’s broad range.
Dorotheum’s 19th century paintings auction on 27 April 2017 saw the best result ever brought in by this category, with €1.54 million paid for a painting depicting the future Empress Elisabeth of Austria at the time of her betrothal. The historic portrait ‘Kaiserin Elisabeth von Österreich als Braut zu Pferd in Possenhofen’ by Carl Theodor von Piloty and Franz Adam hung over the bed of Emperor Franz Joseph at the Hofburg Palace for over 60 years.
Another new world record result of €792,500 was brought in by Emilio Vedova’s 1959 large format ‘Tensione’ sold at the auction of contemporary art on 31 May 2017. Dorotheum also explored new avenues with its emphasis on Informel.
The masterful early Renaissance ‘Battle of Pharsalos’ by Apollonio di Giovanni – originally attached to a wedding chest – sold for an excellent €674,000 on 25 April 2017 at what was one of Dorotheum’s most successful old master paintings auctions in its history.
Further top results in the first half of 2017 included a pair of old master portraits of a man and a woman from the Antwerp School that sold for sensational €466,600.
Marino Marini’s small sculpture of a bizarre horseman about to fall off his horse, ‘Piccolo Miracolo’ itself became a small miracle when it sold for wonderful €405,600. Dorotheum saw some exceptional results for Austrian art in the modern art category for paintings that included Carl Moll ‘Praterszene’ (€247,000), Alfons Walde’s ‘In Tirol’ (€198,200) and Albin Egger-Lienz’s ‘Ruhender Hirte’ (€186,000), all of which achieved prices far above their estimates.
Art Informel proved especially sought after. ‘Komposition’ by Nicolas de Stael (1950) sold for €405,600, ‘Vegetaux’ (1957) by Jean Fautrier achieved €295,800, and ‘Study for Homage to the Square: Earthen I’ (1955) by Josef Albers garnered an exceptional €515,400.
Vintage cars have always been in high demand at Dorotheum. A Horch 853 Sportcabriolet dating to 1938 was the superstar of the auction on 24 June, selling for €500,000. The auction’s sell-through rate was extraordinarily high.
The book auction on 28 June brought an absolute rarity in the form of a seminal volume on early modern anatomy. The hand-coloured 1543 first edition of ‘De humani corporis fabrica libri septem’ (On the architecture of the human body) by Andreas Vesalius, a physician practising in Padua, was sold for €367,237 to a bidder personally present at the auction. This represents the highest winning bid for a book at a Dorotheum auction to date.
