Sotheby's saw a range of surprises in its Old Master drawings, Evening and Day sales; A British watercolor resource gets a big reception; Heritage Auctions sold a record $58m in comic books in 2018.

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Is That You, Mona Lisa?

Follower of Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa ($80-120k) $1.695m

During Wednesday’s Old Master drawings sale at Sotheby’s, a drawing from Leonardo’s Battle of Anghiari sold for many multiples of its estimate. Experts in the field point to Rubens’s The Fight for the Standard and the fact the drawing came with a Dutch Royal provenance suggesting the bidders were chasing a potential Rubens work. Today, a copy of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa sold for $1.695m (close to 14x the high estimate.) A work attributed to Valentin de Boulogne, A Young Shepherd Wearing a Crown of Laurel Leaves sold for 10x the high estimate of $60k or $595k. Michael Sweerts, Portrait of a Boy made and unexpected $375k against an $80k high estimate. Also, this Danaë from Titian’s studio attracted strong interest to sell for more than twice the $120k high estimate or $275k.