Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Judith and José

June 26, 2019 by Marion Maneker

The Toulouse Caravaggio gets sold before the auction; José Mugrabi's buying at Christie's is telling us something about the market

This commentary by Marion Maneker is available to AMMpro subscribers. (The first month of AMMpro is free and subscribers are welcome to sign up for the first month and cancel before they are billed.)

We Might Not Have Seen the Last of That Caravaggio

The New York Times’s Scott Reyburn moves the ball forward on the Toulouse auction of Caravaggio’s Judith and Holofernes which was cancelled yesterday in favor of a private deal with the owners who discovered the work in their attic.

The obvious question is whether the sale was a sign of market strength (a big, impatient bid) or a sign of weakness (the sellers took the offer knowing there were few other serious bidders.) Reyburn spoke to Eric Turquin, the Old Masters expert who drove the incomplete re-attribution:

  • “They did not exactly get cold feet, but they decided it was good for them,” said Mr. Turquin. When the painting was shown in London in February, Mr. Turquin had said it would be auctioned without a reserve price, meaning it could, potentially, have sold for a far lower figure.Immediately after the offer was made on Monday, “three or four” other prospective buyers were asked if they were prepared to bid to a higher level, Mr. Turquin said, but no firm commitments were made and the auction was canceled. “Over €30 million is such a height that the oxygen is rare,” Mr. Turquin added.

Those seem pretty clear signals that the work sold for a very large amount of money but not anywhere near the nine-figure sum the auction house was predicting.


Sign up to Art Market Monitor Premium today

You need a membership to AMMpro to view this article and other exclusive content daily.

You can register today for $90 per month—with your first month free!—or for $756 per year (no free trial period.)

Screenshot 2016-08-05 16.28.45

If you already have an account, sign in here:

 
 
Forgot Password

Filed Under: Premium

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • $10 M. Picasso Portrait Unseen for Decades to Sell at Bonhams
  • David Bowie Talks About Art (with Julian Schnabel)
  • Sotheby's Pulls in a $9m David Hockney for November
  • Mapping a Career in the Art World
  • How to Chant Like an Auctioneer
  • Vienna Secession Painting, Long Thought to Be Lost, Sets a Record at Auction
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor