Christie’s Paris held the sale of The Onzea-Govaerts Collection, curated by Axel Vervoordt, which achieved a total of €10 million (US$10.8 million), surpassing its high estimate and drawing 21 percent new buyers.
Assembled from the 1970s onwards by Joris Onzea and Suzanne Govaerts, the collection of objects and works of art was led by a group of paintings and works on paper by Rik Wouters that together made €4.2 million. Reflets, a 1912 portrait of the artist’s wife and muse Nel from the Collection Lambert, sold for €2,460,000 against a pre-sale estimate of €650,000 to €850,000, setting a new world record for the artist.
Strong results came across categories. A Concetto Spaziale, Attese by Lucio Fontana sold for €1,068,500, and an Egyptian granite head of Sekhmet made €819,000. A Roman marble torso of Venus, dated to the 1st century, exceeded its estimate tenfold to reach €315,000.
Among the decorative arts, a set of four Dutch silver candlesticks by Cornelis de Haan, Rotterdam, 1687, realised €201,600 against an estimate of €50,000 to €80,000, setting a world record for a set of 17th-century Rotterdam silver. In the Old Master paintings section, Le printemps by Abel Grimmer sold for €504,000, doubling its estimate, and a Vierge à l’ Enfant attributed to the Master of the Mansi Magdalen realised €103,320 against an estimate of €30,000 to €50,000.
Thirteen African sculptures were also offered, including a Baulé statue from Côte d’ Ivoire that reached €107,100, well above its high estimate. The Louvre Museum pre-empted part of the dinner service of King George III of the United Kingdom (lot 17), considered one of the largest and most important services made at the end of the 18th century.
(Press Release)
