It’s just a coincidence. But Bloomberg and the Evening Standard both write about the recent announcement that Christie’s will sell Domenico Zampieri painting “St. John the Evangelist” which will be sold in December and is estimated at £10m. The work has been in the Christie family for a century and comes to market just as there seems to be a mismatch between supply and demand with demand remaining strong in the Old Master market.
What the demand will be for the very large canvas will be remains somewhat of a guess. The artist has gone in an out of vogue as Bloomberg‘s Scott Reyburn points out:
The “St. John” was a victim of changing fashions in collecting in the 19th century, said Gerald Reitlinger in his 1961 book, “The Economics of Taste.”
The painting was sold for 12,000 pounds in 1810 when Baroque-period works were popular, said Reitlinger. In 1843 the critic John Ruskin pronounced Domenichino was “incapable of doing anything good, great, or right in any field, way, or kind, whatsoever.” The auction price for the canvas dropped to 105 pounds in 1899, said Reitlinger.
Glyndebourne Family to Sell Old Master for £10m (This Is London)
Glyndebourne Family’s Painting May Make $16.5m (Bloomberg)
