Gerrit van Honthorst The duo. 1624
Estimate: 2-3 million dollars
Result: $ 3.4 million
Source: Press Release Christie's

While in London by its records rattled Russian auction in New York on June 5 silently held an auction of Old Masters Christie's. Total revenue of these trades was 6.7 million dollars. Had been sold 59 lots out of 107 offered (55%). In monetary terms, revenues reached 68%. Against the background of Russian trade, maybe this is not such statistics and impressive, but there was a record auction price for the work of Dutch artist Gerrit van Honthorst (1592-1656, Utrecht). While the estimate 2-3 million dollars canvas depicting a singing by candlelight male and female, went for 3.37 million dollars with the auction house commission. The buyer was a London art dealer Johnny van Haeften (Johnny Van Haeften). Tangled existence of this has Russian pages.

Written in 1624, at the peak of his creative career Honthorst, this work is one of the best images of a night of fun became renowned Dutch artists working under the influence of Caravaggio. "Duet" symbolizes popular in Utrecht 1620s music scene, in which the paintings depicting musicians and singers to the waist, concealed lighting light source. At the beginning of the XIX century painting "Duet" Hit the St. Petersburg collection of Count Alexander Stroganoff (1733-1811), adviser to Catherine the Great and the president of the Imperial Academy of Arts. After 1912 the work was placed in the Hermitage, along with other paintings from the collection of Stroganov, and two years later the Count Sergei Alexandrovich (1852-1923), opened for visits to family mansion. After the revolution of 1917 the entire collection was nationalized and in 1925 moved Stroganov Palace Hermitage. In 1931, the painting "Duet" was sold in a special auction Lepke Berlin, organized by the Soviet government. Later that same year, the painting was purchased by Bruno and Ellen Spiro, who in 1938 took away his National Socialists and sold, along with all the contents Spiro villa in Berlin. The picture has visited various German collections, while in 1969, was acquired in the art market in Munich, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, from which she was returned to the descendants of the family Spiro in April 2013.

Prepared by Mary Onuchina, AI

Source: Press Release Christie's, reuters.com , artinvestment.ru