Old Masters

Some of the artist’s most modern and dramatic works were derived from his social concerns

This month Master Drawings New York (MDNY) has its first run under new ownership.

In one of the last auctions to take place at Drouot in 2023, a newly discovered portrait by Jean-Honoré Fragonard was pursued to €2.5m (£2.17m) at Boisgirard-Antonini (30% buyer’s premium).

Tiny portrait thought to show a Spanish noblewoman was bought at a local school in the 1970s

Bonhams’ (28/27% buyer’s premium) latest Old Master sale at its New Bond Street rooms was hard going, with almost half the lots unsold and two-thirds of those that did get away either going on or below their low estimate.

One of the Old Masters attracting significant interest at Lyon & Turnbull’s (25/20% buyer’s premium) latest Five Centuries sale in Edinburgh was a small still-life that drew strong competition against a £5000-8000 estimate.

Rembrandt prints were a prominent feature of the London Old Master sales in December.

A couple of views of London were strongly contested at the latest Old Master auction series in the capital.

Quirky subjects generate the most eye-catching results at the latest Old Master auction series

When it was last on public view, at a Berlin exhibition in 1981, the Portrait of a Black Courtier was attributed to the early 18th century Prussian court painter Antoine Pesne.

Plenty of potential takers emerged for an early copy of Leonardo’s 'Madonna of the Rocks' at the Dorotheum (25/20.84% buyer’s premium) sale of Old Masters.

Once believed to be by Rubens, work hidden away during the war is now thought to be a copy by a pupil

The biggest surprise of Wendl’s (21% buyer’s premium) extensive general sale in Rudolstadt on October 25-28 was the seemingly never-ending exchange of bids for an early 18th century Old Master which had a starting price of €900.

A couple of headline lots, a scattering of rare and unusual pictures and one of the most valuable consignments of prints ever offered lifted the latest series of Old Master auctions in London.