It's been a few years since the top ten at Spanish art auctions was worth millions.
In 2019, the Madrid house Abalarte sold the "Portrait of a Lady with Cupid" from Giulio Cesare Procaccini's workshop for one million euros;
In 2017, the house boasted a “Young Immaculata” by Diego de Velázquez, which a Spanish collector bought for eight million euros.
Abalarte also leads the most expensive sales in 2022.
The company's experts sometimes discover paintings by Goya, sometimes by Velázquez, and with these Spanish masters they still occupy the first two places.
Both images are declared as protected cultural assets and are not allowed to leave Spain.
The "Portrait of a Caballeros", dated 1621/23, which some, if not all, experts believe to be by Velázquez, was dated 2,
Estimated at 5 to 3 million euros and found a new lover at 3.5 million in March.
Most recently, only two telephone bidders argued about the small canvas measuring just 32 by 23.3 centimeters, which seems to have been cut out of a larger work.
Then, in July, Abalarte offered a moving “Baptism of Christ” by Francisco de Goya.
The 45 by 39 centimeter picture from 1774 is in very good condition in the original frame.
Its provenance has been completely clarified.
The heirloom went to a collector at an estimate of 2.5 million euros.
Then, in July, Abalarte offered a moving “Baptism of Christ” by Francisco de Goya.
The 45 by 39 centimeter picture from 1774 is in very good condition in the original frame.
Its provenance has been completely clarified.
The heirloom went to a collector at an estimate of 2.5 million euros.
Then, in July, Abalarte offered a moving “Baptism of Christ” by Francisco de Goya.
The 45 by 39 centimeter picture from 1774 is in very good condition in the original frame.
Its provenance has been completely clarified.
The heirloom went to a collector at an estimate of 2.5 million euros.
The Madrid company Alcalá, on the other hand, had no luck.
In June she had to take back a "Virgen del Pilar", painted by Goya around 1775.
No one was willing to pay two million euros for the 107 by 80 centimeter picture, which is also a protected cultural asset.
However, it had a bit of a reputation as a fire sale, having sold for four million years earlier.
Abalarte also reached third place with a surprise success.
A colorful “Homage of the Philippine People to Queen Isabel II” from 1842/43, attributed to the Filipino painter Juan Arzeo, was called for a paltry 60,000 euros.
The hammer fell at 450,000 euros.
Two houses from Barcelona follow: La Suite had a Flemish school from the 15th/16th in March.
century underestimated.
The "Portrait of a Man" from a noble private collection triggered a bidding war until the auctioneer sold it to a foreign collector for 288,000 euros (estimate: 8,000 euros).
At Templum, a company that opened in the Catalonian capital just last October, Philippine Juan Luna has caught the interest of several collectors.
His four by seven meter picture of dying gladiators "Spoliarium" from 1884 was acquired by the provincial administration of Barcelona and only returned to the Philippines during the civil war.
There it hangs in the National Art Museum of Manila.
A first draft for the famous work brought in 275,000 euros (37,500) in March.
Asian and especially Filipino collectors have been trying to secure the cultural assets of the former Spanish colony for years.
These include images by Manila-born Fernando Zóbel.
In 1966 he founded the first abstract art museum in Spain in Cuenca.
In the Madrid home of Fernando Durán, the hammer fell for Zóbels, who was arrested in 1967,
A companion was the co-founder of the group El Paso, Manolo Millares.
Last year, two of his works topped the list of most expensive sales.
The traditional Madrid house Ansorena now occupies sixth place when the abstract composition made of sackcloth "Humboldt am Orinoco (11)" from 1968 passed into new hands in March at an estimate of 240,000 euros.
An oil painting on pine wood at Setdart in Barcelona left the tax far behind in January.
The “Christ Carrying the Cross” by a Spanish master, dated around 1560, climbed from 20,000 to 180,000 euros.
The work from the Milà Collection was previously attributed to the Italian Renaissance painter Sebastiano del Piombo.
Although it is undoubtedly not Piombo's, it could well belong to the Italian school instead of Spanish.
Anyway, there was a lot of interest
Madrid-based company Durán places the only NFT hybrid work and the only living artist in the top ten.
The work by Venezuelan artist Pedro Sandoval from the series "Monalisa Marilyn & cheetahs #013" from 2021 was worth 170,000 euros (140,000) to one bidder.
The owner of the NFT also received a large-format serigraph on Plexiglas – eighth place.
Ansorena was successful with two impressionist oil paintings by the master Joaquín Sorolla.
A “Gypsy Woman in the Garden”, around 1908, adorned the catalog and far exceeded her expectations: 140,000 euros (60,000) and ninth place.
Several bidders raised “Elena in the Garden” from 1920 to 120,000 (80,000), making it twelfth place.
Sorolla's works enjoy loyal collectors and are never missing among the most expensive hammer prices on the Spanish art market.