Rare sculpture of Adrian de Vries at Christie's
ARTinvestment.RU   26 мая 2011

Bronze sculpture of the Netherlands sculptor Adrian de Vries (XVII century), found in the garden of the castle there is nobody in Europe, exhibited at Christie's estimate: 5.8 million pounds

When Christie's conducted the conventional assessment of property of a castle in northern Europe, a specialist auction house, asked not to overlook the sculpture garden. "I'll do de Vries later", - jokingly said appraiser. Imagine his surprise when, climbed the ladder to the pedestal of one sculpture, he really gave her the signature of the great masters of the Netherlands Adrian de Vries.

famous sculptor of the late Renaissance, Adrian de Vries ( 1556-1626) worked in Prague at the court of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II and his military commander Albrecht von Wallenstein. The latter ordered the sculptor to a range of garden statues, and the latest find, dating from the 1626 year, maybe one of them.

Sculpture height slightly greater than one meter represents a figure of mythological character, holding a globe. Some believe that the ball was added after his death, in the XVII century.

rediscovered the work of de Vries promises to be the top lot of Christie's auction of European sculpture until the twentieth century, which will be held July 7 in London. Statue of the mythological hero was estimated at 8.5 million pounds, but experts believe it will be able to sell much more expensive: some fan art from Qatar and Abu Dhabi probably be able to pay and 15, and 20 million pounds (32 million dollars).

The current record price for a product of early European sculpture - 6.9 million pounds - was paid for an Italian bronze medallion end of the XV century with the image of Mars, Venus, Cupid and Vulcan at Christie's in December 2003 . Dealers say that the owner of the medallion was Sheikh Saud al-Thani, a cousin of the Qatari emir.

As sculptures of the twentieth century, there is the primacy belongs to the Bronze" walking man I »Alberto Giacometti (Sotheby's, February 2010: 104.3 million ) and «Head" by Amedeo Modigliani (Christie's, June 2010: 53 million U.S. dollars) .

material was prepared by Maria Onuchina, AI

Source: bloomberg.com , artinvestment.ru