Sotheby’s Paris took in a combined €18.6 million ($21.5 million) from collection of the late real estate mogul Manny Davidson across two in-person sales this week. That result, from an evening sale on Wednesday and a day sale on Thursday, marked the highest total for a single-owner sale in France this year, and with the collection’s third online sale closing on Friday, that figure will almost certainly climb higher.
Titled “The Manny Davidson Collection: A Life in Treasures and Benevolence,” this trio of sales comprises almost 500 lots and includes rediscovered Old Masters, 19th-century British paintings, 18th-century gold enamel, and an automaton clock by the celebrated James Cox, among other things.
When I dropped into Sotheby’s Paris on Monday for another story, to talk fractionalizing Rembrandts with precious metals mogul and collector, Thomas S. Kaplan (more on that later), I bumped into Chloe Stead, Sotheby’s global head of private sale, Old Masters. She gave me a shotgun tour of the collection and said she had high hopes for several lots. Among them was Michael Sweerts’ A young man wearing a turban holding an upturned roemer: the fingernail test (1648-52). It sold on Wednesday for €1,567,500 against its €800,000 to €1,200,000 estimate. Not a bad result, but the house was probably hoping for more interest given a rediscovered Sweerts sold for over $16 million at Christie’s in 2023.
Wednesday’s sale, which took €13,835,700 ($15,938,726) in total, generated a combined €7.3 million from the Old Master paintings on offer (high estimate: €6.6 million). They included Thomas de Keyser’s Portrait of a silversmith, probably Christiaen van Vianen (1600–67), which went for €698,500 (high estimate: €600,000), and the rediscovered Head study of a boy (1614) by Peter Paul Rubens, originally part of a larger studying hanging in the Louvre. It sold for €635,000, just short of its €700,000 high estimate.
“The depth and quality of Manny Davidson’s collection were truly exceptional, every work told a story of passion, refinement, and curiosity,” Louis-Xavier Joseph, head of the furniture department at Sotheby’s Paris, told ARTnews. “From Old Master paintings to rare examples of decorative arts, sculpture and horology, each object bore the mark of a collector with an extraordinary eye. The enthusiasm from bidders across the world and the outstanding results we witnessed tonight, across so many categories, speak to his natural instinct for quality, and for beauty in all its all its forms.”
In the auction catalog, British antique dealer Francis Norton wrote: “I first got to know Manny fairly late in his collecting career and I immediately realised that he was a very special person with an outstanding eye for quality. He had that extraordinary gift, which cannot be learnt, of being able to walk into a shop, fair or auction and selecting the best items on offer. Although he was often very tight on price, he always knew when he had to pay over the odds for something special, and this auction reflects that.” Davidson died last year at the age of 93.
Eighty-three percent of the evening sale’s 84 works and objects sold by lot, with most buyers from Europe. A third came from the US. Sotheby’s said the saleroom was full and described the bidding as “fervent.”
A nice self-portrait by Joshua Reynolds titled Self-Portrait in doctoral robes (circa 1770) was chased by five bidders, who drove the final price up to €838,200 (high estimate: €500,000). It’s a preparatory study for the famous self-portrait Reynolds presented to the Royal Academy of Arts in 1780. In Paris I also met Julian Gascoigne, Sotheby’s senior specialist for British paintings, who told me, “There are very few of Reynolds’ self-portraits left in private hands that are as good as this one, and what makes this picture interesting is that it was a complete discovery in the 90s when it turned up at Phillips.”
Cox’s aforementioned George III silver and gilt automaton clock, made around 1780, sparked a bidding war between five people, eventually soaring past its €150,000 high estimate to go for €571,500. It was a good night for timekeeping; the clocks brought in a combined €1.3 million (high estimate: €960,000).
Highlights from the day sale on Thursday (total: €4.8 million/$5.5 million) included a late 16th-century Venetian latticinio glass standing bowl, which sold for 12 times its €25,000 high estimate for €304,800 after being chased by two determined bidders.
Abraham Bloemaert’s Vieil homme en buste portant un manteau brun et un chapeau; Vieille femme en buste portant un manteau brun et coiffée d’un foulard (1634) more than doubled its high estimate, achieving €104,140. Also, a George III two-manual harpsichord made by Jacob Kickman in 1760, surpassed its €50,000 high estimate to take €82,550. Of Thursday’s 218 lots, 82 percent sold by lot.
“Manny Davidson was a true connoisseur, a man of great curiosity, culture, and generosity, whose collection reflected a lifetime devoted to beauty in all its forms,” Mario Tavella, chairman of Sotheby’s France and President of Sotheby’s Europe, told ARTnews after the sales. “His eye was both discerning and joyful, and he constantly sought out works of extraordinary quality and character. The sale series held at Sotheby’s Paris is a testament not only to his eye and connoisseurship, but also to the deep emotional connection his treasures continue to inspire among collectors worldwide.”
