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)
