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Third-String Old Masters Rock

June 6, 2009 by Marion Maneker

The LACMA on Fire blog was impressed with the results for the 17 Old Master paintings being deaccessioned from LACMA. The 14 paintings that found buyers attracted $5.8m with a De Hooch and Ter Borch each making more than $1m. But the real import, according to LACMA on Fire, is the fact that third-rate Old Masters are in such demand:

Even if the estimates were conservative, this proves that someone is still buying third-string old masters. Perhaps most surprising was buyer enthusiasm for Greuze’s creepy Girl With Lamb and a portrait of a mother and two children merely attributed to the forgotten name of Gaspar de Crayer. The Greuze, a quintessential example of the Hearst-Marion Davies taste, went for for $182,500 (estimated $60,000 to $80,000) and the questionable de Crayer sold at $254,500, over four times its low estimate.

LACMA Nets $5m at Sotheby’s (LACMA on Fire)

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Filed Under: Auction Results

About Marion Maneker

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