Tiepolo Makes £2.84m
I thought Giambattista Tiepolo's beautiful Portrait of a lady as Flora was badly undervalued at £700,000 to £900,000 (CLICK). It would indeed have been a "snip" within that price range. It fetched £2.84m at Christie’s auction of Important Old Master and British Pictures in London on Tuesday, despite its rather battered condition.
posted by Unknown @ 4.12.08
2 comments
2 Comments:
Interesting point so I could be wrong Ian; I have at last plucked up courage to comment on the issue of the Titians. You will think I am being very woolly about it but I am very split over the matter.
Titian was a good painter and the second painting in the deal is well worth a shot at (forgive the pun) but I do not feel the first one is worthy of National Gallery wall space.
I approve of acquiring great works of art for the Nation to gaze on but also to commission and buy great "New Works" of living artists and sculptors of "Not The Turner Prize Ilk". So it has not been easy for me to jump off the fence!
Hi, Robert
I think you've sort of come down on my side - maybe - on the Titian debate. £50m is too much to pay for an inferior work. We could buy the above Tiepolo and works by a dozen undervalued British masters for £50m.
Plus I'm convinced that the main reason so many Big Names are supporting the Titian purchase is that it has belonged to an aristocratic Brit. family for generations. I don't think that's a good reason for buying it.
But yes, I want to see us buy as much great art as possible, because it's good for the tourist industry and because I don't want to travel abroad to view it.
And no, I don't want to see the likes of the ICA or Tate Modern wasting fortunes on Turner-like junk. We need to get back to traditional values and quality in art and start collecting contemporary works that aren't "contemporary art", if you know what I mean.
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