With Sotheby’s poised to re-open the doors once more onto its galleries in New Bond Street in London, this winter season’s series of Old Master and Treasures sales will showcase works by some of history’s most famous artists, including Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt. From paintings to prints, to sculpture and drawings, these artworks will go on view alongside unique and extraordinary objects encapsulating the history of patronage and collecting over the centuries.
Alongside these 700 artworks spanning 800 years, two paintings from our sale of Old Masters in New York in late January 2021 will be unveiled in our London galleries as part of the pre-sale exhibition. Sandro Botticelli’s Young Man Holding a Roundel – the ultimate Renaissance portrait and a true beauty of the ages, and one of the greatest Renaissance paintings remaining in private hands – is estimated to sell in excess of $80 million.
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It will be joined by Abraham and the Angels, a rare biblical scene by Rembrandt measuring just 6½ by 8⅜ inches (16 x 21cm) – a profoundly beautiful, gem-like painting on panel from 1646 that stands among the finest works by the artist ever to come to auction. The masterpiece was studied for months by the late British artist, Lucian Freud, a few years before his death, with the intention of making an etching inspired by the painting. Freud abandoned the print, remarking that he could not improve upon what Rembrandt had done. Last appearing at auction in London in 1848, when it sold for £64, this small-scale masterpiece is now returning to the block with an estimate of $20-30 million.