NEW YORK CITY —Sotheby’s two-day sale of property from the estate of decorator extraordinaire Mario Buatta (1935-2018) on January 23-24 bested expectations, reaping nearly $7.6 million on roughly 1,000 lots. Artfully promoted by the York Avenue auction house, the eclectic slew of self-described “hoarder” and society fixture Buatta elicited intense interest from online and phone bidders for everything from sporting art to chinoiserie cabinets. At $212,500 including premium, the sale’s top lot was “Deux Maisons,” an understated oil on canvas street scene by Russian artist Yuri Pavlovich Annenkov (1889-1974). Watch for a full report in a later issue of Antiques and The Arts Weekly.
