PARIS.- At Christie's, the Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares Collection achieved a resounding success, realising €38,736,120. Heralded as a landmark sale, it more than fulfilled expectations, surpassing its high estimate by a substantial margin, with 64% of lots selling above their high estimates. Christie's saleroom was filled to capacity for this highly anticipated auction, eagerly awaited by collectors and connoisseurs of the Grand Goût and eighteenth-century French art. The results reflect the remarkable coherence of the collection, with each work embodying Graziella's relentless pursuit of excellence and uncompromising standards.
Comprising 59 exceptional lots, the sale was led by an outstanding group of paintings dedicated to the greatest names in French art and some of their most celebrated masterpieces. These works attracted strong international interest and inspired intense bidding battles in the room, on the telephones and online.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard's L'Instant désiré tripled its high estimate to realise €10,600,000, becoming the second most valuable work by the artist ever sold at auction. The painting also established a new French auction record for Fragonard, while Antoine Watteau's L'Île enchantée achieved €10,370,000, likewise setting a new French auction record for the artist.
Another highly anticipated highlight of the collection, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres' Portrait of Julius Caesar, an Imperial commission from Napoleon III, sold for €2,362,000, more than three times its low estimate and establishing a new world auction record for the artist. Hubert Robert's La Nef de verdure completed this remarkable series of results, tripling its high estimate to achieve €1,280,000.
The collection also featured an important group of drawings, including two remarkable pen and brown ink landscapes by Fra Bartolomeo, one of the greatest Florentine masters of the Renaissance. From the collection of Maria Niccolò Gabburi (1676-1742), a double-sided study depicting an Italian Town sold for €768,000, establishing a new French auction record for the artist.
Pierre Etienne, Vice-Chairman of Christie's France and International Director, Old Master Paintings, commented: "The privilege of being entrusted with a collection of such significance is matched only by the joy of witnessing today's collectors' passion for the masterpieces of eighteenth-century French painting. This cascade of records once again demonstrates the market's appetite for exceptional works and firmly establishes the Patiño Ortiz name as a true hallmark of quality."
Collectors were equally enthusiastic about the unique group of silver assembled with passion and scholarship by Graziella Patiño de Ortiz Linares. Among the rarest pieces were four three-light candelabra from the service of the Kings of Portugal, by Thomas Germain and François-Thomas Germain, representing one of the most important commissions entrusted by a foreign court to the workshop of the Germains, goldsmiths to the Kings of France. The set sold for €3,399,000.
Another legendary masterpiece from the collection, a rare Louis XIV silver-gilt ewer and basin by Nicolas Delaunay, goldsmith to Louis XIV, realised €768,000. Also noteworthy was a set of four Louis XIV silver candlesticks by Pierre Massé, which more than tripled its estimate to achieve €268,000.
The selection of French furniture likewise reflected Graziella's exacting standards and impeccable eye for exceptional works and celebrated makers. A pair of openwork black lacquer corner cabinets with parquetry-lined interiors by Bernard II van Risamburgh (B.V.R.B.), identified as having been supplied to Madame de Pompadour, sparked a memorable bidding battle before selling for €1,152,000, more than four times its estimate. Two luxurious commodes with Chinese lacquer panel, richly mounted with finely chased and gilt bronzes, made circa 1740 by Mathieu Criaerd, also achieved outstanding results well beyond their estimates, selling respectively for €524,800 and €358,400.
The sale also saw an important acquisition by the Musée national du Château de Versailles, which exercised its right of pre-emption to acquire a pair of Royal Louis XV wall lights attributed to Jacques Caffiéri for €384,000.
Paul Gallois, Head of Furniture and Works of Art, Christie's Europe, said: "These superb results, notably for the extraordinary pair of openwork corner cabinets by B.V.R.B., demonstrate the exceptionally strong demand for rare and high-quality works, as well as furniture with prestigious provenance. Over the past decade, the market has enjoyed a genuine renaissance, with remarkable prices reflecting renewed enthusiasm for the decorative arts."
