Hailed as one of the most important assemblages of art and objects spanning antiquity and modernity, the highly anticipated Masterpiece collection arrives at Sotheby’s New York at a particularly busy time, when much of the art world’s attention is focused on London and Paris. Despite the record-breaking performance, that may have allowed the sale to go somewhat under the radar. The Masterpiece Evening Auction held on October 21 achieved a turnover of US$63 million, with 100% of the 64 lots sold. The sale far exceeded expectations, surpassing the pre-sale high estimate of $47.6 million and surpassing the $60 million originally anticipated for the first-round sale in New York in one night.
“In more than 50 years in this field, I have seen few collections achieve this effect—true visual coherence across such extraordinary breadth,” Sotheby’s Chairman George Wachter said in a statement when the sale was announced. He emphasizes that across the 25 categories, each object reflects the same keen eye while exploring connections between some of the best expressions of human creativity across time.
Leading the auction was a huge Roman Empire torso, which was finally sold for US$34.3 million after 14 minutes of intense bidding among five collectors. Backed by guaranteed and irrevocable bids, the torso’s price soared past its estimate of $8-12 million. The marble dates to the first half of the first century AD and may represent the Emperor Julio-Claudian who ruled during that period. The closest similarities are found in museum collections, including the Vatican Museums and the Zagreb Archaeological Museum. The statue was carved in two parts and is so well preserved that it can still be imagined standing majestically, wearing a tunic, a leather corset with fringed drapes at the waist and shoulders, a bronze breastplate, hanging from the left shoulder to the back, and originally covering the outstretched left forearm. The relief decoration on the breastplate is part of an elaborate symbolic pattern: the god Thor emerges from the water on a four-chariot on the chest, while a trophy with a shield suspended from the belly is flanked by two triumphal figures.
Believed to have come from Sarona, Dalmatia, possibly from one of the twin temples in the northeast corner of the square, the sculpture is recorded as belonging to Aloys Maximilian Neumann (1829-1906), who acquired it in the mid-19th century in Split, Kingdom of Dalmatia. The work remained in the possession of his heirs until a Sotheby’s auction in 2010, when an Austrian collector purchased it for $7.36 million. In the fifteen years since then, its value has more than quadrupled, with the latest result setting a new world auction record for a Roman antique. A rich exhibition history attests to its importance, including long-term loans to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Art Gallery. It was most recently on display at the J. Paul Getty Museum and is on loan from 2021 to 2024.
Another top lot is Canaletto’s Venice, Grand Canal looking east and Santa Maria della Salutesold for $6.2 million, below the estimate of $6-8 million. The painting has a remarkable exhibition and ownership history, having been in the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art for more than 60 years. Painted around 1740, this oil painting has been described as one of the artist’s finest Venetian views and has been widely exhibited at venues including the Palace of the California Legion of Honor in San Francisco, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Athens, the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, and the National Museum of China in Beijing. It last sold at Sotheby’s in 2020 for $5,275,600 against an estimate of $3-5 million.
Other top results include Still life with oranges, nuts and spices, a box of sweets, a pitcher and a wooden barrel A work by 18th-century Spanish still life painter Luis Meléndez sold for $5 million, slightly above the estimate of $4-6 million. The painting was on long-term loan to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 2018 and 2019.
Guaranteed by 17th century Dutch painter Jacob van Ruisdael View of Haarlem from the northwest Sold at low estimate of $2.5 million. The painting has a rich exhibition history and was on long-term loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art from 1951 to 1995 and to the National Gallery in London in 2019.
A Roman Empire marble portrait of a girl from the Augustan period also sold for $2.5 million, fully meeting its low estimate. In 2014, Sotheby’s sold the work for $2,225,000, setting an auction record for an ancient classical marble female portrait head. The latest transaction exceeded the benchmark by $275,000, setting a new record for the category. Distinguished provenances of the sculpture include Sir Darcy Godolphin Osborne and Prince Johannes von Schwarzenberg, and it has been exhibited at the Munich Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the J. Paul Getty Museum.
One of the highlights of the evening was the particularly enthusiastic bidding for a work by Gustav Klimt Reclining half-naked, facing rightone of the earliest preparatory studies of the artist’s lost masterpiece Ledaoffering a rare glimpse of the painting which was destroyed in Immendorf Castle in 1945. Bidders competed on the phone and in the room for several minutes before the painting sold to an online bidder for $281,600, against an estimate of $120,000-180,000. The consignor bought the work at Christie’s in London in 2008 for £96,500 (approximately $190,000 at the time), and the nominal dollar value has appreciated 48% in 18 years.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard head of an old man It attracted four bidders and sold for $1.5 million, including fees. The work was sold at Christie’s New York in 2011 for $1,370,500 against an estimate of $500,000-700,000, a nominal increase of 12.1% in the past 16 years. It previously belonged to George A. Rentschler of Cincinnati and remained in the care of his descendants until its sale in 2011.
In intense bidding online, in-room and over the phone, four participants brought a fragment of a Royal Louis XIV Savonnerie carpet, circa 1664-66, to $217,600, against an estimate of $50,000-70,000. The fragment is part of the eighth or ninth carpet designed for the Apollo Gallery of the Louvre, woven by the Lourdes family’s Chaillot studio, and is characterized by a radiating sun pattern, linking it to the grand decorative program of carpets commissioned in honor of the Sun King. The consignor acquired the work at Sotheby’s in London in 2016 for £87,500.
Another carpet fragment attracted attention, especially among collectors of Islamic art: a Bernheimer Safavid “Vase” technique carpet fragment, made in Persia around 1600, which sold for $448,000, well below its estimate of $350,000-500,000. It was first exhibited at the Art Club of Chicago’s “Early Oriental Carpet Loan Exhibition” in 1926 and has been described by experts as one of the most exquisite vase-craft rugs in existence. Other rugs and scraps fared much less strongly, often selling for close to or below their low expectations.
Five bidders placed bids on an Iznik pottery border tile from Turkey, dating to around 1570, which sold to a single bidder in the room for $61,440, against a high estimate of more than $50,000. The opening lot of the sale, the tile features a unique Ottoman cintamani pattern that combines three spots with wavy bands traditionally associated with leopard and tiger stripes, symbolizing power, dominance and good luck. Its provenance is equally noteworthy: it once belonged to Heinrich Jacoby, the famous rug dealer and collector behind PETAG, a Berlin-based company specializing in luxury Persian rugs, and its design was inspired by the çintamani logo, which later became PETAG’s signature and was woven into the rug. The tile has been exhibited several times at the Hamburg Museum of Art and the Sheffield City Museum and Art Gallery.
Another Iznik tile, dated about 1565-75 and associated with two large 21-tile sets in the Louvre in Paris, was sold immediately afterwards and sold for $53,760 above its estimate. At a subsequent sale, two slender Iznik tiles also exceeded their high estimates, selling for $61,445 and $76,500 respectively.
Another highlight among the artifacts is a Greek bronze anatomical breastplate, probably discarded after a battle in the last third of the fourth century BC or the first half of the third century BC. Four bidders competed, and the lot more than doubled its low estimate, selling for $704,000, against expectations of $300,000-$500,000. When it was last auctioned at Sotheby’s in New York in 2012, it sold for $632,500 (including commission), 322% above its high estimate.
On the modern side, Auguste Rodin’s Masters of Bronze Art Adele’s torso That was more than double the high estimate, at $332,800, compared with expectations of $100,000-$150,000. Originally part of the collection of the Musée Rodin in Paris, it last sold at Sotheby’s in London in 2022 for £144,900 against an estimate of £60,000-80,000, an 89% increase in nominal dollar value in just over four years.
Two colorful gouache paintings by André Derain sold for $307,200 and $256,000 respectively. The first one, danceacquired by a Christie’s collector in 2023 for $346,500, a decrease in nominal dollar value. The second one, batherIt proved even more profitable: It was acquired at Christie’s in London in 2009 for £79,250 (about $130,000 at the time), nearly double that amount.
These are a relatively small number of works whose publication provenance cites another auction house, which shows how long Sotheby’s has maintained its relationship with the collector and how it helped shape the Masterpiece collection over the years before returning to the auction house at the end of this extensive and eclectic collecting journey.
The Magnum Opus series continued on October 22 and 23 with three days of sales in Figure & Form, Darkness & Light, and Decoration & Texture, totaling $7.29 million in sales. The four deals totaled more than $70 million, against a total estimate of $38-56 million, with a sell-out rate of over 98%. Further works from the series will be auctioned in New York and Paris in 2027, bringing the entire project to over 900 works across 26 auctions.