A Leonardo da Vinci the scale of a Post-it sells for $12.2 million

Written by Scott Reyburn
A tiny Leonardo da Vinci sketch bought Thursday at Christie’s for 8.9 million kilos with charges, or about $12.2 million, a report value for a Leonardo drawing at public sale.
Leonardo’s delicate silverpoint research “Head of a Bear,” measuring just below 3 inches by 3 inches, and thought up to now from the early 1480s, was included in Christie’s summer season “Exceptional Sale” of high-value historic artistic endeavors assembled from a variety of amassing classes.
Estimated to promote for 8 million kilos to 12 million kilos, or $11 million to $16.5 million, the drawing was purchased by a single bid from an as-yet-unidentified purchaser within the public sale room. There was no competitors from any phone or web bidders. The closing value of $12.2 million was marginally higher than the $11.5 million given in 2001 for Leonardo’s barely bigger silverpoint research “Horse and rider,” the earlier public sale excessive for a drawing by the artist.
“These prices are absurd,” mentioned Jean-Luc Baroni, a vendor in museum-quality previous grasp drawings, primarily based in London and Paris. Baroni mentioned that if he had been requested to cost the work, he would have valued it at about $2 million. “You’re buying a name. It’s nothing to do with the love of drawings.”
“OK, it’s a Leonardo. But it’s so tiny,” he mentioned. “It’s a postage stamp.”
The drawing may need been small — it’s concerning the dimension of an ordinary sq. Post-it observe — however the sale Thursday was considered by many consultants as presumably the final alternative to purchase an unique Leonardo drawing from a personal assortment.
Prices for just about any work related to this most well-known of Italian Renaissance artists have soared because the astounding $450.3 million given in 2017 for the “Salvator Mundi.” In June, Christie’s bought a Seventeenth-century copy of the “Mona Lisa” for two.9 million euros, or about $3.4 million. On Thursday, simply hours earlier than Christie’s sale of the drawing, Sotheby’s bought what might be a Twentieth-century copy of the “Mona Lisa” for 378,000 kilos at a day public sale of previous masters. It had been estimated at 8,000-12,000 kilos.
“Leonardo is the magic name,” mentioned Anthony Crichton-Stuart, director of the London dealership Agnews, who had been following Sotheby’s day sale.
Leonardo was recognized to create “composite” animals in his artwork by combining parts from completely different species. Scholars have related the drawing of a bear that bought Thursday with the famously animated head of an ermine in Leonardo’s celebrated “Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani,” relationship from about 1490, within the National Museum in Krakow, Poland.
“It was a very beautiful, very poetic drawing,” mentioned Stephen Ongpin, a specialist vendor in previous grasp drawings, primarily based in London. “What I liked was the tenderness of the depiction. It’s not like a scientific drawing. But it was small.” Ongpin mentioned that he thought Christie’s valuation had been “correct,” on condition that the estimate mirrored a report value for a Leonardo drawing set 20 years in the past.
Ongpin and different sellers recognized Christie’s nameless vendor as American billionaire Thomas S. Kaplan, finest recognized for his touring assortment of work by Rembrandt. Kaplan acquired the drawing from London vendor Johnny van Haeften in 2008, as indicated in Christie’s cataloging. Kaplan declined to substantiate that his was the “family trust” making the sale.
Ongpin mentioned that Christie’s had been searching for the “Salvator Mundi effect” by providing the drawing in its night “Exceptional Sale,” which appeals to rich collectors of trophy objects, reasonably than at a specialist previous masters public sale.
“There are one or two private collectors and one or two museums who could have bought a drawing like this,” Ongpin mentioned. “But Christie’s were also looking for a buyer who doesn’t collect drawings and would be entranced by the name.”
The sale raised questions on the way forward for one other drawing by the Renaissance grasp, that one owned by a retired physician in France.
The former physician, an octogenarian recognized in authorized paperwork merely as Jean B., is hoping so as to add the work to the small record of Leonardo drawings from personal collections supplied on the open market.
Back in 2016, Paris auctioneers Tajan recognized a double-sided pen-and-ink drawing that the physician owned as a serious Leonardo discovery. Widely accepted as a Leonardo by specialist students, the 7 1/2-by-5-inch sheet, exhibiting the martyrdom of St. Sebastian on one facet and scientific sketches on the opposite, was declared a “national treasure” by the French state, which was permitted to supply to purchase it at a good market value throughout a 30-month interval throughout which its export was banned.

But the sensational “Salvator Mundi” sale in 2017 made the proprietor of the drawing revise his expectations, in line with Rodica Seward, proprietor of Tajan.
Seward mentioned that the proprietor determined to cancel the public sale deliberate for June 2019, at which Tajan hoped to realize a value of not less than 30 million euros, or about $34 million, for the double-sided drawing. That July, the French state supplied to purchase the sheet for 10 million euros, or about $11.8 million, simply earlier than the certificates refusing its export was set to run out. The provide was rejected, and the export ban stays in place after having been renewed.
The drawing has now turn out to be the topic of a protracted authorized dispute, by which the proprietor and his household are in search of to carry the export restriction, which might permit them to promote the Leonardo on the worldwide market. On Wednesday, a Paris court docket adjourned the case till Oct. 27.
“If that little Christie’s drawing is worth $12.2 million, what is the ‘St. Sebastian’ worth?” Seward mentioned in an interview. “Who can buy it in France if you can’t export it? Who knows?” she added. “The drawing is in limbo, and is in our safe.”