LONDON.- Comprising a total of 14 live auctions and online sales, with works of art dating from antiquity to the 20th century, Christie’s London Classic Week sales in July 2018 collectively realised £72,376,000 / $95,809,981 / €81,738,228. The top lot of the series was a gift from Louis XIV to his son, the Grand Dauphin, Hercules Overcoming Acheloüs, circa 1640-50 by Florentine sculptor Ferdinando Tacca (1619-1686). The bronze sold in The Exceptional Sale 2018 for £6,758,750 / $8,935,067 / €7,637,387, setting a new world record price for the artist at auction (estimate on request: in the region of £5 million). This was followed by Ludovico Carracci’s Portrait of Carlo Alberto Rati Opizzoni in armour which sold for £5,071,250 / $6,704,193 / €5,730,513 in the Old Masters Evening Sale, becoming the second highest price for the artist at auction. The group of works by Thomas Rowlandson from the Collection of the late Baron Alain de Rothschild in the Old Master & British Drawings & Watercolours sale and also the group of works by Simeon Solomon from a private European collection in the Victorian Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Artsale were both 100% sold. With strong online participation throughout the sales, including the most successful Japanese Prints online sale to date, the Science & Natural Historyauction saw 70% of lots sell online through Christie’s LIVETM, a notable figure only previously surpassed by Private Collection sales, such as Audrey Hepburn.

In this centenary year of women’s suffrage, Christie’s offered a notable group of works by talented female Victorian artists, including a recently discovered work by Emma Sandys which set a new world record price for the artist at auction; a portrait by old master painter Elisabeth-Louise Vigée Le Brun also sparked fierce competition, resulting in the second highest price for the artist at auction. Quentin Blake: A Retrospective; Forty Years of Alternative Versions saw a new record achieved for a work by Sir Quentin Blake with Charlie, Willie Wonka and Grandpa Joe and realised a total of £768,625 / $1,015,968 / €867,778; proceeds will benefit House of Illustration, Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity and Survival International.

In total, 14 records were achieved with new world record prices for the artist also set for Clifford, David, Fuseli, Koe, Peruguni, Mainardi, Nosadella, Reid Dick, Rosi, van Veen and Ximénez. New records for the medium were realised for works on paper by Waterhouse and Cooper Gotch, with the Plantin Polyglot Bible, formerly in the Spanish royal collection at El Escurial, also setting a new record for a Plantin production, in the Valuable Books and Manuscripts sale which achieved the second-highest total for a London sale in this category (£6,200,000).

2018 also marks the 300th anniversary year of Thomas Chippendale’s birth. The magnificent Dundas Sofas sold after sale for an undisclosed sum, exceeding the record price for Chippendale at auction.

CLASSIC WEEK BY NUMBERS
• Christie’s July 2018 Classic Week total: £72,376,000 / $95,809,981 / €81,738,228 • 10% increase in registered bidders from Classic Week July 2017
• Registered bidders from 65 countries • Over 18,900 visitors to Christie’s King Street • 14 world record prices at auction set for artists or mediums