Scott Reyburn previews the Old Master sales that take place on Tuesday and Wednesday on Bloomberg with some comments from dealers and specialists:

• “A collapse in the market for contemporary art always results in a bounce-back for Old Masters,” Savile Row-based dealer Charles Beddington, one of Master Painting Week’s debut participants, said in an interview. “Some people are starting to look again at buying a more solid kind of art.”

• “There are more buyers than there were 10 years ago for fantastic things from all periods,” Paul Raison, Christie’s London-based head of the Old Masters & 19th century art department, said in an interview. “Seeing an Ingres drawing in the catalog looks shocking at first, but after a while it makes absolute sense.”
• “There are very few good pictures around,” Jean-Luc Baroni, a London-based Old Master dealer, said in an interview. “It’s nobody’s fault. The auction houses can’t give guarantees, and it’s hard for them at the moment.”

Johnson & Johnson Heiress Paintings Top $136.3 Million Art Sale (Bloomberg)