Colin Gleadell Leads with Bonham’s Successful Greek Sale

The Daily Telegraph‘s art columnist, Colin Gleadell sees a bright spot in the Greek sales

It was not all doom and gloom at last week’s auctions. In London, Bonhams held a sale of Greek art which exceeded estimates to bring £3.8 million. Fourteen artists’ records were broken. The top lot was a rediscovered masterpiece by Demetrios Galanis, The Painter’s Family (1920-21), which sold within estimate for £264,000. [ . . . ]

“Buyers at the sale were almost exclusively Greek,” said Bonhams expert, Terpsichore Angelopoulou. [ . . . ]

At Sotheby’s, a record for a 19th-century Greek painting was set when The Arrival of Karaiskakis at Faliro, a marine painting depicting a scene from the Greek War of Independence by Constantinos Volanakis, sold for £1.6 million.

Sotheby’s sale was £6.066 million (almost $9.1 million) and 53% sold by lot.

Market News: Greek Art Breaks Records (Daily Telegraph)