Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared in On Balance, the ARTnews newsletter about the art market and beyond. Sign up here to receive it every Wednesday.
At Sotheby’s Old Masters and 19th century paintings evening sale last Thursday, UK chairman Harry Dalmeny fielded bids from potential buyers who donned wispy silver crowns and bespoke pinstriped tailoring. It’s no secret that the archetypal Old Masters collector is both wealthy and fast approaching their twilight years. Much has been written about how this corner of the market desperately needs to draw in a new, younger base of collectors. But that anxiety seemed further off as the sale generated an impressive $30.6 million (plus fees), soaring past its $25 million high estimate in an overall soft art market. (All figures reported here include buyer’s premium, unless noted otherwise noted.)
Sotheby’s top brass—including Alex Branczik, the house’s head of modern and contemporary art—manned the phones for a diverse bunch of buyers on Dalmeny’s flanks. The big win of the night was for Sandro Botticelli’s 15th-century painting The Virgin and Child Enthroned, which sold after a frantic ten-minute bidding war between nine parties. Branczik’s client tabled a big bid. The final price: $12.6 million, more than three times the $4 million high estimate.
At a jubilant post-sale dinner, Branczik told me that contemporary and modern collectors are increasingly diversifying their portfolios by turning to Old Masters. “A Botticelli or a Rembrandt hanging next to a Rothko or a Picasso, what’s not to love?” he said.
Chloe Stead, Sotheby’s global head of private Old Masters sales, added that Thursday’s evening auction “sends a great signal” about the health of the market. According to Stead, 75 percent of the lots sold had never come to auction before, or even come to market at all during the past half-century. This “proves that fresh material, priced correctly, will attract the attention of both established Old Masters collectors and new buyers,” she said.
The aging collector base, according to Stead, is a challenge for every sales category, not just Old Masters. “When younger collectors are given the opportunity to engage with Old Masters, it’s not a hard sell,” she said.
Nearly 60 percent of the lots sold for over their high estimates in Thursday’s sale, with six paintings going for over $1 million. Those paintings included Rosso Fiorentino’s rediscovered The Virgin and Child with Infant Saint John the Baptist (ca. 1514–17), which went to a bidder in the room for a record $3.64 million, and George Stubbs’s The Spanish Pointer (ca. 1766–68), which sold for $2.28 million.
Milo Dickenson, the managing director of London Old Masters gallery Dickenson, was at the auction. He told me that even though the most important Old Masters collectors are still typically in their 50s or 60s, he’s seen a shift in attitude among younger collectors, who now view the works as “classic but not old-fashioned—and of great value compared to contemporary art.”
“As a result, more and more contemporary buyers are buying a few Old Masters for their collections,” Dickenson, who is in his 30s, said. “This is a real trend that is happening right now. Someone bought a Tintoretto off us and couldn’t believe the value. We also recently sold a Peter Lely to a new collector.”
In October, during the Florence International Biennial of Antiques (BIAF), Italy’s leading Old Masters fair, Dickenson told me that attracting younger clients is “all about storytelling.” “Instagram is a very important place to find new buyers. It’s worked for us—we’ve got new clients in their 30s and 40s,” he said. “And finally, it has to be fun.”
Sotheby’s Old Master prints sale in London was held on December 6, the day after its Old Masters and 19th-century paintings evening sale. The prints sale totaled more than $1.8 million (plus fees) with an 87 percent sell-through rate. In another encouraging sign for the market, nearly a quarter of the buyers were new clients to the house.
A ten-minute stroll through Mayfair, Christie’s hosted the first part of its own Old Masters sale on December 3. The auction house’s head of Old Masters, Clementine Sinclair, indicated that it is also seeing more crossover between collectors loyal to his category and buyers who have previously bought in other areas. Almost 80 percent of the house’s clients bidding in the Old Masters sale are also modern and contemporary buyers, or “20/21” collectors, as Christie’s calls them, according to Sinclair.
The first Old Masters sale held by Christie’s this month beat out expectations, raising $18 million on a $13.5 million high estimate across 23 lots. (The expectations may have been lowered due to the state of the market; last year’s equivalent sale generated $30 million). The sale was led by a two-sided Anthony van Dyck painting from around 1621, which sold for $4.35 million.
Sinclair said the well-worn narrative about the dwindling supply of Old Masters paintings (due to things like shifting tastes and provenance issues) and the struggle to relate to younger buyers is “fearmongering.” “It’s not become any harder to consign great works,” she said. “Old Masters span six centuries of supply—there will always be great work out there and our recent results prove that if you offer A-grade work, people will buy.”
When asked if Christie’s has recently put more effort into encouraging contemporary clients to dip into the Old Masters market, Sinclair deflected. “Christie’s has always offered a diverse range of works across different collecting categories, both in specialist sales and private collection sales,” she said. “This exposes our clients to a rich array of works. While some buyers choose a more focused approach many collect across a whole range of areas.”
Sotheby’s Branczik was a bit more explicit. “Collecting across categories is something that we have been witnessing—and encouraging—for many years now, and it was really rewarding to see this in action in such an exciting way in [Thursday’s] sale,” he told me. “Though some of the best collectors have always sought out great art regardless of when it was created, we’re in a privileged position at an auction house which allows us to see and foster these synergies in unexpected places.”
At BIAF in October, I canvassed dealers about their efforts to reel in younger clients. Like Dickenson, Flavio Gianassi, the founder of London-based FG Fine Art Ltd, said that it’s all about storytelling.
“Works that present curious or particular subjects and have important provenances, are the ones that find the greatest interest among young people,” Gianassi said. “It is also important to help young collectors navigate this world, reassure them with the conservation of the work, feed them with information and help to educate their eyes.”
Anthony Crichton-Stuart, the director of Agnews Gallery in London, said he wasn’t worried about aging Old Masters collectors. “We just need to make our market as approachable as possible to new and younger buyers and to show its continued relevance.”
Fabrizio Moretti, the secretary general of BIAF, didn’t mince his words. “I believe that we need new blood, because the old blood is dead,” he said. “I think that if you create an event that is a little bit fun by putting on charity dinners, for example, and other events, we’ll hopefully attract a new crowd to look around the biennial, and maybe some of these people will be inspired to start collecting Old Masters. We have so much on offer, from pieces worth $50,000 up to millions. There is something for everyone.”
