Burgundy: exceptional sale of a table to 6.2 million euros

Lyon (AFP)

A painting by master Vissy Brod, a central figure in Gothic and Prague painting from the middle of the 14th century, was sold for 6.2 million euros (including fees) at an auction in Dijon on Saturday, the second largest important of the year in the region.

The first was in October the painting of the Italian Cimabue, "The Mocked Christ", more than 24 million euros (including fees).

Estimated at 400,000 / 600,000 euros, "The Madonna and Child in Throne" wooden devotional panel (26 cm by 20.2 cm) made in Bohemia around 1350, was acquired by the Benappi Fine Art Gallery on behalf of of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York at the end of a battle between nine bidders, according to the auction house Cortot that hosted the auction.

"We are proud and happy to be able to show that works of this size can be sold in the regions to major international museums, thus contributing to the influence of the French art market abroad," said the press release. Hughes Cortot.

According to the auction house, this auction is "the most important of the year recorded in the Burgundy region" after that, on October 27th in Senlis, of a very rare painting by the primitive Italian painter Cimabue (1272-1302), " Christ mocked ", more than 24 million euros (including fees). The work was estimated between 4 and 6 million euros.

Discovered by chance in a house in Dijon, the painting of "the Virgin and the child in throne" had been appraised and presented in Paris last September, with the painting of Cimabue, by the firm Turquin, expert of the old masters.

"It took us four months to find the attribution and to sit it down with certainty.For the French market and for us, it is a consecration that the MET comes to buy it in the heart of Burgundy", indicates for its share Saturday Eric Turquin.

On the painting, the face of the Virgin is full of finesse and the very natural gestures of the child Jesus who holds the thumb of his mother with one hand and his foot on the other are remarkable. Under the black paint background was found a composition widening the throne to the whole picture.

© 2019 AFP