News from the art world
The sale of the century
A bitter divorce between a couple who built up one of the most spectacular private art collections in America has resulted in Sotheby’s most valuable ever auction, says Harriet Sherwood in The Guardian. A total of 35 works from the collection amassed over the past 50 years by property tycoon Harry Macklowe and his estranged wife Linda were sold last week for more than $676m, making it the most valuable single-owner sale ever staged. Mark Rothko’s 8ft-tall painting No. 7 (1951) fetched $82.5m, while Le Nez, a 1965 sculpture by Alberto Giacometti, went for $78.4m; Jackson Pollock’s painting Number 17, 1951, raised $61.2m. The works were put on sale after both the former couple and their lawyers failed to agree an estimate for their art collection, and thus decided to test the market. Art collectors and auctioneers alike were relieved by the “strong competition” for works at the sale, particularly from Asian collectors; it had been feared that the art market might suffer as a result of the pandemic.
Salvator Mundi: downgraded
In 2017, a “long-lost painting of a beatific Christ” thought to be the work of Leonardo da Vinci was sold for a record $450m, says Nick Squires in The Daily Telegraph. Ever since, the work – Salvator Mundi – has invited much speculation, with some experts questioning its authenticity. Now, Madrid’s Prado Museum has waded into the debate by downgrading Salvator Mundi to the status of a picture merely “authorised by or supervised by Leonardo”. The verdict has been made public in the catalogue for an exhibition at the museum devoted to copies of the Renaissance master’s work and other pictures created in his workshop. The catalogue features an essay that deems parts of the painting to be “of surprisingly poor quality”, suggesting that Leonardo himself probably contributed just a few brushstrokes at most. The picture’s current whereabouts are unknown, though it has been rumoured to have been on a superyacht owned by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman.