Anthony Van Dyck's Self-Portrait sold for US$2.43 million at Sotheby's

Sotheby's auction house acquired a self-portrait by Flemish artist Anthony van Dyck as the best-selling work at an auction held on Thursday, February 1, in New York, USA, where the artist's painting was sold for 2.43 million US dollars. At the auction, 49 works by different artists were offered, including works by several Spanish Baroque masters who left some disappointed in the sales.

19 of the businesses failed to sell. Among the Spanish artists, only one painting by Luis Meléndez (Still Life with Artichokes and Tomatoes) reached a notable price, selling for US$2.05, but other “gems” at the auction suffered worse luck: Ribera's piece was withdrawn, and Murillo. It was not sold and there was no fierce bidding for the painting of El Greco's youth.

The recently discovered Martyrdom of San Lorenzo (painted by El Greco in 1568, Venetian period), which the house highlighted in its promotion of the event, sold for $571,500, within expectations.

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More attention may have been drawn to the absence of a painting by José de Ribera, a portrait of Saint James the Greater, which a Sotheby's spokeswoman confirmed had previously been withdrawn, or the lack of buyers for a religious scene by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Both were presented as some of the most interesting pieces of the day.

He added that as with Murillo's painting, the self-portrait of Peter Paul Rubens that topped the auction, estimated at between $3 million and $5 million, did not reach the minimum and remained unsold. Next, the Foundation opened another auction of more than a hundred small works in which there was a similar trend, with some surprise: a religious scene attributed to Valencian Juan Rexach sold for US$91,440, well above the more optimistic estimate of US$50,000. .

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A portrait of Queen Consort María Josefa Amalia of Sagunia, by Vicente López y Portaña, sold for US$22,860, including margins, while a portrait of King Philip IV of Spain, a follower of Diego Velázquez, and a bouquet of flowers were not sold. By Juan de Arellano.