(ANSA) - NEW YORK, JAN 26 - A Botticelli, a Rembrandt and a "double" Bernini: there is great expectation among experts and collectors for this week's Sotheby's auctions in which works of a level rarely reached in the rarefied segment of Old Masters.
The undisputed star of the evening of 28 January is a portrait of a young man, perhaps a member of the Medici family, holding the tondo of a saint painted on wood by another artist in his hand: the extremely rare painting attributed to Sandro Botticelli was unsold by the heirs of the tycoon Sheldon Solow, the owner of the iconic 9 West 57 skyscraper in Manhattan, with an estimated $ 80 million.
But even Rembrandt's small painting "Abraham and the Angels" valued on the eve of 20-30 million could sparks during the same evening: offered by Mark Fisch, one of the board members of the Metropolitan Museum, according to Sotheby's is one of only two paintings with scenes del VecchioTestamento painted by Rembrandt still in private hands and in 2017 it was at the center of the Frick Collection "DevineEncounter" exhibition.
The sale also includes an "Ecce Homo" by Guido Reni, a Madonna with child in relief by Luca della Robbia, a portrait of a man (possibly the Roman prince Antonio di Santacroce) by Tintoretto and a selection of Dutch and Flemish paintings from the 17th century including still lifes by Rachel Ruysch, Willem vanAelst, Ambrosius Bosschaert and Willem Claesz.
The Bernini "double" will be beaten the next day, when the collection of the deceased gallery owner, collector and interior designer Hester Diamond will be dispersed.
It is a marble sculpture entitled "Autumn", commissioned by Prince Leone Strozzi to Gian Lorenzo Bernini and his father Pietro.
Gian Lorenzo was only 18 when he began to sculpt the statue, one of the few examples of collaboration between father and son still in manipulation: similar examples are at the Getty in Los Angeles and at the Metropolitan in New York.
The estimate is 8-12 million also in light of the fact that Bernini's works rarely emerge on the market: the last time was in 2002 when a terracotta entitled "il Moro" was sold at Sotheby's for 3.2 million, a record so far unbeaten.
(HANDLE).
