Download images: Please click on the preview image (to be used free of charge only for media reports on Dorotheum auctions, Photocredit: Dorotheum Vienna)

Treasured Investments - Great Demand for Old Masters at the Dorotheum

Jan Brueghel, Rocky landscape with a mass held
in a grotto

Antonio Joli, St. Peter’s Church and St. Peter's
Square in Rome

Propitious beginning of the first Dorotheum auction week of 2009: The auction of old master paintings on 31th March 2009 aroused keen interest and was marked by the high appreciation of the lots sold. Many of them found buyers among the Dorotheum's international clients, both in the crammed auction hall and via telephone. 

 One particular star of this auction – perfectly timed to coincide with the opening of the new Dorotheum representation in Rome – turned out to be Antonio Joli's View of Rome with St Peter's Basilica and St Peter's Square  (Cat. No. 14, € 168.300). Two paintings by the Brueghel family were similarly successful, a Rocky Landscape by Jan Brueghel the Younger which sold for 126.800 Euro and an Attack on a Peasant Couple by Pieter Brueghel the  Younger which was sold for 104.000 Euro („Überfall auf ein Bauernpaar“ Cat. No. 59, 60). 

"Our intensified contacts with Italy have born ample fruit", Peter Wolf, head of the old masters department, concludes, "Italy has contributed greatly as far as buyers as well as sellers are concerned."

This gratifying result confirms a trend towards investment in assets of lasting value and offers a basis for optimism: once more, old masters have demonstrated their quality as a highly stable currency. 

Press Office:
Doris Krumpl, Tel. + 43 1/515 60-406
doris.krumpl@dorotheum.at

	Antonio Joli, St. Peter’s Church and St. Peter's Square in Rome
	Jan Brueghel, Rocky landscape with a mass held in a grotto