AMSTERDAM.- The sale of Properties of Royal and Noble Families, held at Sotheby’s Amsterdam on 17 December captivated the imagination of art collectors worldwide. Bidding was truly international. The auction of 415 lots comprised selected paintings, furniture, works of art and silver, all consigned from Royal and Noble Houses in Germany, Austria, England, Russia and The Netherlands. Most of the objects were unusual, fresh to the market, of the highest quality and with a distinguished provenance. Many of the top lots exceeded their estimates by far, including:

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Lot 60, circa 30 plaster caricatures of composers, musicians and actors, most after models by Jean-Pierre Dantan (1800-1869) went to France for an astonishing €82,350 (est €1,000 - 1,500). The figures were consigned by a member of the Royal House of Wittelsbach,

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Lot 26, a marble portrait bust of Johann Joachim Winckelmann, by Salvator de Carlis, Rome, dated 1808, from the same collection, exceeded expectations selling for €75,150, ten times the presale estimate.

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Lot 388, a pair of portraits by Jan Adam Janszoon Kruseman (1804-1862), of Jonkheer Johan Carel Willem Fabricius, heer van Leyenburg, Loenen en Wolferen and his wife Adriana Wilhelmina Clara Hooft, fetched €51.150 – ten times estimate. The oil on canvases were consigned by a Dutch noble family and will remain in Holland.

Mark Grol, Managing Director of Sotheby’s Amsterdam, commented: “The sale captivated the imagination of art collectors world-wide. The wide variety of good quality works with a distinguished provenance proved to be irresistible to the international market.”

The sale totalled €2.3 million.