Steven Litt of the Cleveland Plain-Dealer does a follow up on the Cleveland Museum of Art’s deaccessioning of 32 Old Master works including two paintings bought as Tiepolos some time ago and now believed to be the work of his followers. The total sale was for $1.47m against estimates of $706k to $1.022m, approximately $450,000 more than the high-end estimate which would have netted the museum around $1.2m earmarked for new acquisitions (which one hopes are not in the Old Master field because the prices seem to be rising):
“We were pleased to be swept along by a generally enthusiastic group of buyers and stronger than expected sales across many lots,” C. Griffith Mann, the museum’s chief curator, said in an email. “Things went within or beyond the estimates.”Continue Reading