Old Masters

Dealer Colnaghi is launching a foundation to bring Old Master paintings to a “21st century audience”.

Decamping from the Big Smoke of London to the sunny beaches of a Caribbean island might sound like a happy daydream or at best, a holiday. But for Old Master specialist Theo Johns, relocating to the Dominican Republic represents a business strategy as well as a life change.

An impeccably preserved portrait of Thomas Pope, later 3rd Earl of Downe, by William Larkin (1580-1619), led Bonhams’ (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) Old Master Paintings sale on July 5.

A dealer will offer what he believes is a Joseph Wright of Derby self-portrait at the LAPADA Art & Antiques Fair this autumn.

Written off by some as a dying area, the latest Old Master series in London defied the naysayers with encouraging results during its traditional ‘grand finale’ slot at the end of the London sales season.

The latest Old Master sales in London put in a solid performance with the overall total from last week’s auction series running at £115m (including premium) with one day sale still to take place at the time of going to press.

An enticingly estimated drawing by the 17th century English court portraitist Sir Peter Lely offered for sale in a French provincial auction drew a flurry of attention from English trade and private bidders last week. It was propelled to over 20-times its estimate.

Recent Old Master paintings in Vienna and Cologne have yielded some predicted but also unexpected results including a high price for a work by a German better known for his poems and plays than his paintings.

A view of Ludlow Castle is one of the works included in Miles Wynn Cato’s ongoing exhibition.

Less than six months after they announced the discovery of an unpublished Leonardo drawing, the French auction house Tajan has revealed another major artistic discovery – a pair of paintings by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) that last appeared in the late 18th century. Both the Leonardo and the Fragonards have been declared National Treasures by the French State.