A work with a remarkable “career” was the star of the Old Master sale at Dorotheum on 10 November 2020. The painting from the workshop of Peter Paul Rubens, ‘The Christ Child and the Infant Saint John the Baptist’, from the collection of the Genoese aristocratic Spinola family, also known as the ‘Spinola Rubens’, fetched 873,300 euros after long bidding battles - one and a half times more than at the 2011 Dorotheum auction. At that time it was auctioned off for 558,030 euros.

The title lot of the auction catalogue, an early Renaissance Florentine wood panel with scenes from the Trajan legend, executed on a nuptial chest (‘cassone’), changed hands for an outstanding 283,900 euros. Giuseppe Vermiglio’s ‘The Taking of Christ’, a virtuoso new interpretation with references to Caravaggio, went to an overseas buyer for 369,300 euros.

There was enormous demand for the surreal allegory of the deadly sin of ‘Superbia’ by a follower of Pieter Brueghel I. The painting changed hands for an outstanding 237,540 euros.

Wine festival and world record at 19th-century sale

Outstanding results were also achieved on 9 November 2020 at the auction of 19th-century paintings. Austrian art was particularly in demand, above all the restituted painting ‘Preparations for the Wine Festival’ by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, which sold for 296,100 euros.The painting has been sold for the benefit of the sight loss charity the Vision Foundation, UK. The painting ‘A Sunny Day in the Old Harbour’ by Leontine von Littrow fetched 69,050 euros, a world record price for the artist. 

Both auctions attracted strong international interest and numerous live bidders.