Christie’s will offer The Onzea-Govaerts Collection, curated by Axel Vervoordt in Paris on 27 March. The collection of 150 lots is estimated to fetch between 7 million and 12 million euros.
The works were assembled from the 1970s onwards by Joris Onzea and Suzanne Govaerts, rooted in the culture of their native Flanders. One of the couple’s first acquisitions, in 1976, is the sale’s star lot: a Peasant Wedding by Pieter Brueghel the Younger, estimated at 1.5 million to 2.5 million euros. Produced after a model by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, the version offered here is the only one among four listed that is signed and dated, in 1622.
The collection took shape over four decades under the influence of the Antwerp designer and collector Axel Vervoordt, a close friend of the couple. Faithful to a Flemish culture of beauty, he brought together pieces from many ages and civilizations, so that Flemish masterpieces appear alongside Egyptian artefacts, African and Asian art, contemporary works and classical furniture.
Lucio Fontana is among the collection’s leading artists. His Concetto Spaziale of 1961 is estimated at 700,000 to 1,000,000 euros, and echoes a 1961 work on charred cardboard by Yves Klein, estimated at 80,000 to 120,000 euros. Both were chosen by Jean-Hubert Martin in 2007 for the Artempo exhibition at Palazzo Fortuny in Venice.
The sale also includes seven creations by the designer Ado Chale, among them a Goutte d’eau table made in 1968, estimated at 50,000 to 70,000 euros, together with a 17th-century Edo period folding screen, estimated at 20,000 to 30,000 euros, a Kota reliquary, estimated at 80,000 to 120,000 euros, and a Baule sculpture, estimated at 60,000 to 80,000 euros.
Among the Old Masters are a 16th-century The Adoration of the Magi by Adriaen Isenbrant and Spring by the Antwerp master Abel Grimmer, each estimated at 250,000 to 350,000 euros. A set of 13 paintings and works on paper by Rik Wouters, a leading figure of Brabant Fauvism, includes Reflets, a 1912 portrait of his wife Nel from the Collection Lambert, estimated at 500,000 to 700,000 euros, and Seated Woman at the Window of 1914, estimated at 400,000 to 600,000 euros. The collection is completed by silverware, including part of the dinner service of King George III of the United Kingdom, estimated at 50,000 to 80,000 euros.
(Press Release)
