Vienna-based auction house Dorotheum announced today that its April and May Classic and Contemporary Week sale series will now be held in June. Many other auction houses have confirmed plans to move their leading spring 20th Century sales to the period running from the end of June to early July, with the majority of smaller fine art and luxury sales shifting online for the remainder of the spring.

Impacted by Dorotheum’s scheduling change are the houses’s Classic week, which comprises offerings of Old Master Paintings, 19th century Paintings and Jewelry, as well as the Modern and Contemporary Art, and luxury sales that make up its Contemporary week. Dorotheum has in past years made headlines for its sales of Old Master darling Gentileschi’s Mary Magdalene in Ecstacy, which made $495,576 in April 2019 and Lucretia, which exceeded expectations achieving $2.2 million in October 2018. This year, highlights from the Old Masters offerings include Pieter Coecke van Aelst’s (1502–1550) painting Adoration of the Magi estimated at €400,000–600,000, as well as works by Jan Brueghel II (1601–1678) and Massimo Stanzione (c. 1585 –c. 1656).

In keeping with the auction sector’s shift overall shift focus to digital, Dorotheum’s has also announced that a selection of its remaining sales—including Master Drawings, Watercolours and Design—will be held online starting in early April. Reporting its highest ever total sale results achieved in their recent Modern and Contemporary Prints auction — with high bids for works by Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein and Egon Schiele — Dorotheum confirmed its optimism in the potential of online sales to meet demand.