The June auction session has started and the first results seem positive. Starting from Finarte’s antique furniture and paintings, sold on 4th and 5th June in Milan. The auction totalled about 2,100,000 euros.
The catalogue offered objects from precious private residences, including an elegant residence of Belluno, many of which had not been on the market for a while. This was an important incentive for collectors.
The evening’s top lot was “Madonna col Bambino” (also called “Madonna di San Luca”). This is a painting by an anonymous artist from the Venetian-Cretan school. The lot was presented in the catalogue with an estimate of 6,000 – 8,000 euros, while it sold for 337,300 euros, with great surprise for the organizers. According to Vittorio Presa, Finarte expert of antique paintings, “buyers probably thought of Duccio di Buoninsegna or one his close collaborators active at the end of the 13th century, a rather suggestive hypothesis, which had been seriously taken in consideration during the studying stages that preceded the publication of the catalogue but was not met unanimously by the contacted experts”.
The buyers must have thought differently and after some heated bidding the lot totalled much more than expected.
A pleasant surprise was also reserved for “ Madonna Nikopeia” or “ Madonna della vittoria” painted in the early 14th century between Bologna and Romagna. The work presents elements of Byzantine derivation, with a singular mixture of Greek-style elements of purely thirteenth-century matrix with hints of almost Giottesque naturalism. The painting, estimated between 40,000 and 50,000 euros, sold for 248,425 euros.
Other important results were achieved for Palma il Vecchio. The canvas “Gesù scaccia i mercanti dal tempio” was bought for 159,550 euros (estimate 50,000 – 70,000 euros). Even “San Paolo” by Simon Vouet sold for more than expected, achieving 109,120 euros (estimate 18,000 – 24,000 euros).
Finally, among the many sales, we should mention the good overall result of ceramics, bronzes, carpets and table pendulum-clocks: a walnut piece enriched with trims in golden bronze, executed by Pellegrino Amoretti in Rome in the 18th century, estimate 5,000 – 6,000 euros, sold for 10,540 euros. Similarly a marble sculpture representing a virile head, sculpted by a Venetian artist in the 16th century (lot 147), estimated between 4,000 and 5,000 euros, was bought for 17,360 euros.

(translated by Giorgina Arcuri)

Hereafter we point out the most important results: