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On Thursday, Christie’s held its Classic week old masters auction at the house’s Rockefeller center location. Hammering at $19.6 million, the sale generated $24.2 million with buyer’s premium across 49 lots, landing at the low end of the pre-sale low expectation of $19.3 million to $29 million. Overall, it realized a sell-through rate of 71.2 percent.

22 percent of lots achieved a price above the high estimate 15 percent sold within their estimate ranges and 26 percent failed to reach their low estimates. 21 lots failed to sell.

Live-streamed from the auction house’s New York sale room and led by chairman and global head of private sales Adrien Meyer, the auction proved lucrative to one major consigner: the Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York. Christie’s sold 9 of the 12 guaranteed works consigned from the museum’s permanent collection across the house’s European art and Old Masters sales which together made $6.6 million with buyer’s premium. That is more than double the total pre-sale estimate of $2.25 million given to the 10 works from the museum consignment.

The sales follow the museum’s announcement in mid-September of long-term plans to deaccession works from its holdings to raise money for collection maintenance—stating a goal of $40 million for the fund. The Brooklyn museum is among the few taking advantage of the temporary relaxed guidelines issued by the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) as a coronavirus relief measure. More deaccessions are to come, according to the museum’s leadership.

Among the top lots was Lucas Cranach the Elder’s 16th-century work, Lucretia, which hammered at $4.2 million, four times above its low estimate of $1.2 million. It eventually sold for $5.1 million to a buyer on the phone with Cyanne Chutkow, Christie’s deputy chairman of impressionist and modern art. Prior to the sale, it remained in the Brooklyn Museum’s holdings for a century since its bequest in 1921.

15th century Mantua painter Lorenzo Costa’s Portrait of a gentleman hammered at $110,000 against an estimate of $60,000, making $137,500 with buyer’s premium. Italian old master Donato de’ Bardi’s tempera, oil and gold panel depicting Saint Jerome, hammered at $95,000, against an estimate of 80,000 to $12,000, and selling ultimately for $118,750 with buyer’s fees. Francesco Botticini’s 15th-century tempera and gold panel, Saints Anne and Joachim, hammered below its low estimate at $28,000, selling for $35,000 total. Gifted to the museum in 1925, Giovanni di Marco’s 14-century arched gold panel, depicting the Madonna and child flanked by saints, sold for $75,000 with premium, hammering below the low estimate.

Among the other top results from the sale that were not from the museum’s collection include Dutch 17^th century painter Govert Flinck’s portrait A young man in a gorget with a plumed hat, recently exhibited at Amsterdam’s Rembrandt House Museum in 2018. It hammered at $1.2 million ($1.5 million with premium), against an estimate of $700,000, going to a phone bidder with Jonquil O’Reily, old masters specialist.

Artemisia Gentileschi’s, The Triumph of Galatea, sold for $2.1 million, double the low estimate.  The price meets her second highest record of €1.8 million ($2.1 million) set in December 2017 for the sale of Self Portrait as Saint Catherine of Alexandria at a Paris Auction.

Anthony van Dyck’s recently rediscovered portrait of military official and noble John VIII, Count of Nassau-Siegen, which was exhibited at the Venice Palazzo Ducale in 2019, was a star result. It drew competitive bidding between clients represented by Jonquil O’Reilly and Maria Los, Christie’s deputy chairman and head of client advisory, hammering well past its high estimate at $1.6 million and going to Los’s client for $2 million with buyer’s premium.

Five additional works from the Brooklyn museum sold in the European art sale held today, including Gustave Courbet’s outdoor scene, bords de la loue avec rochers à gauche, which sold for $789,000. 19th century British painter Philip Wilson Steer’s verdant landscape, Under the trees made $56,250, below the estimate of $60,000. Camille Corot’s portrait of a woman sold for $125,000 and 19^th century Dutch painter Henrik Willem Mesdag’s seascape, titled Marine, sold for $175,000. Charles Daubigny’s 19th century landscape, Un Verger, failed to sell.

The last of the six old masters works from the Brooklyn museum, a painting depicting the virgin and child by a Netherlands artist dated circa 1500 is on offer in an online sale running until October 20. Another work will sell in a forthcoming European art sale.