: Ten phones were mustered for a dark picture described in the
catalog merely as "painter standing beside a canvas depicting
cupid." It took everyone by surprise at Northeast Auctions when
it brought $376,500 during the gallery's May 21-23 sale.
Bronze figure of Diana, $222,500.
Auctioneer Ron Bourgeault would say only that it was
"Italian" when interviewed after the event. He was particularly
tight-lipped as to the painting's provenance and who might have
bought it. Many bidders wanted the picture - lot 1487 of 1,500 lots
offered in the three-day sale - and the phones slugged it out from
an opening of $4,500 all the way to the end.
Two collectors also wanted an elegant, nine-foot-tall gilded
bronze figure of Diana that they drove to $222,500 against its
estimated $15/25,000. The figure, after Augustus St Gaudens, was
poised daintily atop a ball holding a fancifully formed bow and
was made at the Roman Bronze Works in New York for the garden
terrace at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum at
Williamsburg.
A full report of the sale will appear in a future issue.
-FSM
