WORLD’S RECORD ART SALE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 134, 27 August 1927, Page 22

WORLD’S RECORD ART SALE

£192.000 IN THREE HOURS REMBRANDT BRINGS £31,500 A world record picture sale was held at Christie's, London, last month, when in less than three hours a gross total of £192,451 was registered. This is over £35,000 more than the previous record, for the sale of the famous Hamilton Palace collection in 1919. In addition, two other records were made: Rembrandt’s “Portrait of a Man,” formerly called Admiral Tromp, was sold for 30,000 guineas, the highest price ever paid in an English saleroom for a portrait by the great master, while Turner’s “The Dogana and Salute” (24in by 36in)), realised 29,000 guineas—a record price for a small Turner in an English auction-room. The 29 pictures of the Ross collection alono were sold for £136,011. An atmosphere of intense excitement hung over the sale-room. Under the sweltering sunshine which poured through the glass roof, leading “picture men” and art connoisseurs of England and America bid against etfch other at the rate of over £2,000 a minute. Thousands of pounds changed hands with hardly a word being spoken, the bidders signifying their intentions with an almost imperceptible wink or nod. From the outset the firm of Messrs. T. Agnew engaged in a thrilling duel with the American firm of Messrs. Knoedler for the pick of the collections. By the end of the sale Messrs. Agnew’s dealings totalled little short of £IOO,OOO, while those of Messrs. Knoedler amounted to approximately £33.000. The chief results of their struggle for possession were: Messrs Agnew: Rembrandt’s “Portrait of a Man,” £31,500; Turner's The Dogana and Salute,” £30,450; Reynolds’s “Lady Ann Fitzpatrick,” £19.425; Bonington’s “Fisherfolk,” .4:3,150; Reynolds's “Head of Miss Theophila Palmer,” £2,625. Messrs Knoedler; Romney’s "Lady Sullivan,” £17,850; Frans Hals’s “Portrait of a Man,” £5,580; Raeburn’s ‘Miss Betsy Hume,” £.5,460. “Yes, I am afraid some of them will « ross the Atlantic,” a representative of the American firm told a “Daily Chronicle” representative. The great increase in the value of Turner’s work is shown by the fact that his “City of Utrecht” and “The Dogana and Salute,” which were both sold 30 years ago for 14,000, realised 35.000 guineas. Again Reynolds's “Portrait of Mrs. 1 luddesford,” which in 1849 was sold at Christie's for £4 15s, realised £650. The_six Romneys brought in a total of 32,570 guineas, although the artist certainly did not receive more than 300 guineas for them*