May Days?
The May auctions in New York are seen as an indicator of health for the international art market. This year it was not just a stress test for Modern and Contemporary art, but also for Old Master paintings.
While Christie’s New York offered a more conventional ‘mid-season’ sale of modestly valued pictures, much of the excitement was generated by the single-owner sale of the collection of Thomas and Jordan Saunders at Sotheby’s—heralded as ‘one of the greatest collections of Old Masters to come to auction in recent memory’. Expectations, and the estimates, were high. What did the results tell us about the Old Masters market?
The Saunders collection was formed between 1998 and about 2007 by Thomas Saunders, a discreet and successful New York banker who ran a conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, and his wife Jordan. She drove the collecting of Old Master paintings, largely advised by Sotheby’s Old Master department head George Wachter. The couple was clearly drawn to pretty pictures of a secular nature, a large number of them Italian vedute, Dutch still lifes, and sweet portraits of children. Over half of them were bought in public auction.
Fifty-six works were expected to bring in $78m –$114m. In reality, the main auction on 21 May 2025 (Elegance & Wonder Masterpieces from the collection of Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III) delivered a hammer price of $53.89m against a low estimate total of $73.09m, with just over 58% of the lots sold (counting withdrawals as unsold). On the surface of it, no one would call it a rip-roaring success. Sotheby’s gambled with high estimates, which would have won them the consignment against Christie’s, but predictably, these figures did not encourage bidding. Only two lots in the main auction sold above the high end of the estimate—a portrait by Jean-Baptiste Santerre for $200,000 and a Madonna by Sassoferato for $320,000 (both hammer prices). The latter is the only religious painting in their collection.
The Saunders sale total, nevertheless, is impressive, especially given the art market doldrums at large. The sale week bought in a total of $57.25m ($68.87m with premium, also for the following figures) for Sotheby’s—the highest total in New York for the Old Masters category at Sotheby’s and Christie’s New York since January 2023. Sotheby’s New York did better in January 2023 ($93.12m), January 2022 ($98.68m) and 2021 ($133.82m) though two of those Old Master auction seasons were bolstered by a single high-value painting by Botticelli. Whereas for Christie’s New York, in the last five years, only the January 2023 sale week ($73.77m) brought in a sum larger than the Saunders sale week.
Several auction records were broken for artists—notably Frans Post (header image), the first European to paint landscapes of Brazil, Luis Meléndez, the greatest Spanish still life painter of the 18th century, and Jan Davidsz. de Heem, the Dutch 17th-century painter par excellence of sumptuous floral still lifes. The latter went to a contemporary art collector for $8.83m (with premium), more than twice the price paid for a very similar work sold at Lempertz Cologne the same week, even if the hammer price ($7.2m) was below the estimate of $8m–$12m. Two Dutch museums jointly acquired the vivacious pair of music-making children by Frans Hals, which was competitive. Reportedly there was also significant participation from Asian clients.
A few weeks earlier, another single-owner sale went under the hammer at Artcurial Paris (Entre ciel & terre: Chefs-d’œuvre d’une collection française). It was sold by the children of an anonymous French couple who formed the collection around 25 years ago (the same time as the Saunders’) and consisted almost entirely of Flemish paintings, mostly bought from the local dealership Galerie de Jonckheere. Nothing was acquired directly from auction, and in fact, more than half of the works are without a public auction record. Out of the 43 offered (coincidentally, the 21 May Saunders sale also had 43 lots), 38 lots were sold. The Artcurial total was far more modest: a hammer of €10.26m (about $11.67m) against an aggregate low estimate of €7.62m. What, however, was noticeable, was the enthusiasm and the depth of bidding: over 20 out of 43 lots sold above their high estimates. We saw a return to favor of works by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, while a chic Northern renaissance portrait like that by Corneille de Lyon sold for €616,640, well above its high estimate of €150,000. The consignment was given uncompetitively to Artcurial which doubtless made it easier to whip up interest with tempting estimates.
Another startling point of comparison is the Fisch-Davidson sale, formed by the Metropolitan Museum trustee Mark Fisch and his then-wife, Rachel Davidson. Their collection of 10 paintings were offered for sale, fully guaranteed, by Sotheby’s in New York in January 2023 (Baroque: Masterpieces from the Fisch Davidson Collection). Also assembled in the last 30 years, the content was entirely of baroque and in most cases religious paintings. A little less than half were bought in auction. The total of that sale was $41.86m ($49.59m with premium) and included works bought by the National Gallery, London, the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., and the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm—an extraordinary outcome. The main auction in January, which included a Rubens Old Testament picture, was supplemented with the sale of a Portrait of a Man as Mars also by Rubens for $26.19m (with premium), placed separately in a Modern Evening Auction in May 2023.
What do these three distinctive single-owner sales, with different tastes and sales strategies, say about the market today? Mark Fisch’s involvement with the Metropolitan Museum perhaps added a scholarly dimension to his collecting; for example, his Mattia Preti, which was acquired by the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., hung in the Met for several years. However, neither the Saunders nor the Fisch’s would claim the celebrity status of Jackie Kennedy, Yves Saint Laurent, Paul Allen or Getty which undoubtedly fueled interest in their respective sales. So it was the art itself which drove the price.
The collecting journey of the Saunders, showcased in an exhibition of their collection at the Virginia Museum of Arts in 2023-2025, seems reflective of the particular taste of a moment, one manifested in many New York Upper East side residences at the time. That moment where 18th-century ‘furnishing’ paintings by artists like Francesco Guardi, Hubert Robert, Hendrik van Lint and Vanvitelli were in vogue seems to have passed: out of the 4 paintings by Guardi offered, two went unsold and one was withdrawn while the landscape by Hubert Robert sold for just $150,000 (hammer), $400,000 less than what the seller paid for it in auction in 1998. The magnificent Thomas Lawrence portrait, unsold at $5.5m, is another example of the ‘old taste’. Among the works they bought in public auction—which covers every school they collected in Old Masters—few works garnering the most profit (percentage-wise) were of the Dutch 17th century. A detailed calculation of the profit and loss is linked below.
Meanwhile, paintings sourced privately in the Saunders group made some notable gains. The Frans Post view of Olinda, Brazil was bought in 1998 for $2.2m and sold for $6.6m hammer; the de Heem still life was bought in Italy in 1999 for a well publicized figure of $5.5m, and sold for $7.2m hammer. An important private source for the Saunders was the distinguished Montreal collection formed by Michal and Renata Hornstein. Michal was a trustee of the National Gallery of Canada and the Musée des beaux-arts in Montreal to whom he donated the bulk of his collection. However, he sold a small group of works privately through Sotheby’s to Saunders, which includes the aforementioned Lawrence portrait, but also some of the best performing pictures in the sale: the Luis Meléndez, Frans Hals, and Adriaen Coorte.
If there is such a thing as a ‘blue chip’ artist in Old Masters, Rubens is certainly one of them. The oil sketch in the Saunders sale (lot 2) was bought in auction for $470,000 in 2000 and sold for $1.4m hammer. The Fisch-Davidson Salome, despite selling on one bid for $23.5m hammer, is a 327% increase from the $5.5m when the picture last appeared in auction in 1998; same goes for their Mars, which last appeared in auction in 2002 for £4.41m ($6.81m) and sold for over $26m (with premium) in 2023.
The trend, as we have seen for some time, also points to paintings with a ‘modern’ sensibility. That is why the demand for Spanish still lifes, evidenced just now by the enthusiasm for the Meléndez, is so strong. This is mirrored by the appetite for artists like Adriaen Coorte, and in a different way by Frans Hals and Rembrandt, long seen as an inspiration to avant-garde painters. In some cases, the impact of the image and the quality of the work outweigh the fame of the artist, or whether there is even a name attached. Such was the case for the follower of Rembrandt painting in the Fisch-Davidson sale, and the Follower of Bosch panel, also sold in Lempertz on 17 May, for a record price of €906,000 ($1.01m).
In the end, however, it is exceptional quality which makes the difference. A still life of walnuts by Coorte failed to sell at Sotheby’s in May as did a still life by Ambrosius Bosschaert. However, a masterpiece by Bosschaert sold to De Jonckheere at auction in 2019 for €3.31m and having changed hands since then was recently acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Similarly, two great still lifes by Chardin sold in France for over $25m in the last three years. Chardin is now admired as a revolutionary artist even if he was equally revered in rococo France. That a great but conventional flower painting by de Heem was acquired by a contemporary collector for a world record price is a warning that the real benchmark now for old masters is quality as well as modernity.
This was graphically illustrated in Christie’s May Old Masters sale. A perfectly respectable still life by Willem Claesz. Heda failed to find a buyer with a modest estimate of $400,000-600,000. One hundred and eighty paintings generated a total of $7.9m ($10m with premium). The most conspicuous successes were a funky 16th-century panel by Antoine Caron which sold above its estimate for $520,000 and a fragment by Artemisia Gentileschi which soared above its come-hither estimate to sell for $320,000. In July, however, Christie’s will be offering a magnificent large showpiece by Canaletto with an estimate of around £25m. A trophy painting which was last on the market in 1993, this may be exactly the view painting to buck the trend. Similarly, they have a magnificent panel by Gerrit Dou with a much more modest estimate than the one in the Saunders sale of £1m–1.5m. On verra… ❖