Huge Sums Given in London for Art Works

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 358, 19 May 1928, Page 9

Huge Sums Given in London for Art Works

Bidding at Rate of £3,000 a Minute SENSATIONAL SALE (United P.A.—By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian Press Association.) LONDON, Friday. The most sensational sale in the history of art was held at Christie's, when the Dutch and Flemish pictures ol' the Holi'ord collection, were sold. The sum of £53U,0U0 has now been obtained for the ITolford art treasures and books, including £166,U00 for Italian pictures in July, 1927. The saleroom was crowded and buyers from all parts of the world competed. The money realised to-day totalled 364,094 guineas. This is easily a record for Christie’s. The bidding was at a rate oi' £ 3,000 in minute. Ten thousand guineas were paid for th© first lot, a small Rembrandt drawing. That sum probably covered the late Sir Robert Holford’s expenditure on all his pictures. The advances in values exceeded every ticipation of experts. Rembrandt’s portrait, “Man With a Cleft Chin,” measuring only 30 inches by 24 inches, sold for 40,000 guineas. Rembrandt’s “Man With a Torch” realised 48,000 guineas. Five Rembrandts sold for a total of 150,000 uincas. Cuyp’s “View of Dordrecht” sold for 20,000 guineas: a sketch by Rubens, “Elevation of the Cross,” for 5,200 guineas; Susterman’s “Portrait of a Nobleman,” for 12,500 guineas; Petrus Cliristus’s “Portrait of a Man.” for 14,000 guineasSir William Berry closed sensational bidding at 30,000 guineas for Van Dyck’s “Portrait of Abbe Scaggia.” The English and Spanish pictures of the collection are to be sold to-morrow. Another portion of the late Sir George Holford’s famous collection of pictures was sold at Christie’s last year. It realised £166,000. The principal items and their prices were: “The Virgin and Child With Saints,” by Francesco di Pesello, £16,800; “Portrait of a Gentleman,” by Bartolomeo Vaneto, £11,025; “St. Thomas Aquinas,” by Botticelli, £10,290; and the “Lucrezia,” by Lorenzo Lotto, £23,100. The last-named was bought for the National Gallery with the assistance of the National Art Collections Fund.