25/10/2001
by Alex Kearney

On the 3^rd of October 2001, a Japanese buyer paid a hammer price of $ 88,230 (€ 98,830) against an estimate of $ 45,530-58,000 (€ 51,000-65,000) at the Austrian auction house Dorotheum in Vienna, for a copy of Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez’s The Infanta Margarita Teresa at the age of five (oil on canvas, 53 x 43 cm). The same work, a copy of the original now kept at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, had been offered at Sotheby’s, New York less than four months before (21^st June) with an estimate of just $ 6,000-8,000 (€ 6,720-8,960), eventually selling for $ 29,500 (€ 33,040). Likewise, a copy of the Infanta Margarita Teresa at the age of four (oil on canvas, 58 x 49 cm), sold for $ 6,661 (€ 7,460) twice its estimate at Parisian auctioneers Millon and Associés on the 29^th of November, 2000. In March the following year this work was sold at Dorotheum for $ 42,961 (€ 48,120). Clearly the market for copies of Velázquez’s work (Seville, 1599-Madrid, 1660) is thriving, as firmly attributed originals on the market are increasingly hard to find.

Most good quality Velázquez copies are Royal portraits churned out by his workshop for export and are the items most regularly seen on the auction market. An attributed (school of) Portrait of Marianna of Austria, half length (oil on canvas, 72 x 57 cm) was hammered for $ 79,500 (€ 89,190) against an estimate of $ 60,000-80,000 (€ 67,210-89,610) at Christie’s, New York on the 10^th of January 1990. A similar looking studio work, Portrait of Queen Marianna of Austria, half length (oil on canvas, 66 x 52 cm) went for $ 70,000 (€ 78,410) against a pre-sale quote of $ 40,000-60,000 (€ 44,800-67,200) at this auction house on the 25^th of May 1999. Conventional portraits of poorer quality can be had for much less. At Christie’s East, New York on the 26^th of February 1997, a Portrait of Philip IV, bust length in profile, wearing armour (oil on canvas, 63.4 x 35.6 cm) fetched just $ 1,150 (€ 1,290) well under its low end price mark of $ 3,000 (€ 3,360).

The pattern is clear; competent copies achieve strong results. Non-portraits even if vaguely attributed to Velázquez can spice up a sale too. A "circle" of Velázquez entitled A Youth picking grapes at night (oil on canvas, 72.5 x 106 cm) made $ 145,500 (€ 162,980) against an estimate of $ 60,000-80,000 (€ 67,200-89,600) at Christie’s, New York on the 31^st of January, 1997.

If copies of original oils by followers of Velázquez frequently exceed their auction estimates, less than a dozen autograph works remain in private hands. Only one affirmed painting has come up at auction in the past decade and even this has had its doubters. On the 29^th of January 1999, Velázquez's Saint Rufina (oil on canvas, 77.1 x 64.7 cm) smashed unofficial estimates (a reputed top-end estimate of $ 3 million, € 3.6 million) to make $ 8.91 million (€ 9.98 million) at Christie’s, New York: a clear record for the artist. The attribution was backed up by extensive archival and technical research. Despite concerns over condition and quality, bidding was intense to the point of frenzy and a London buyer eventually took the prize.

In real terms this lot pales in comparison to a sale held over thirty years ago. On the 27^th of November 1970 a truly great Velázquez work came up at Christie’s, London. Velázquez’s portrait of his Moorish assistant, Juan de Pareja (oil on canvas, 81.3 x 69.9 cm) sold for a then record price of $ 5.54 million (€ 6.2 million) and is now one of the stars at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Spanish collection. The work today could fetch at least ten times as much were it ever put up for sale, though the chances of another Velázquez of equal importance finding its way onto the market are slim to non-existent. Nevertheless should a privately-held gem like, Study for the Head of Apollo (oil on canvas, Japan, private collection) ever be offered it would certainly create an enormous stir.

The pressure to discover new autograph works and shore up disputed attributions is enormous. It moves curators as well as dealers. In 1997, the head curator of the Prado Museum in Madrid, Matias Diaz Padron, expressed his belief that a copy of Las Meninas held by The National Trust, at the country house of Kingston Lacy in Dorset (southern England) was by Velázquez himself. If true, the value of this version, currently believed to be worth under $ 50,000 (€ 56,257) would rise a hundred if not a thousand-fold. The Kingston Lacy version is one third the size of the Prado Las Meninas and is believed to be the only copy of its type dating to the period of Velázquez (i.e during his lifetime, or shortly after his death).

The dispute over authentic Velázquez’s can cost investors dear. An Immaculate Conception, attributed to Velázquez, was sold by Drouot auctioneers at a sale in Paris in 1991 for over $ 3 million (€ 3.6 million) but then failed to sell when reoffered at Sotheby’s, London in 1994. Between auctions the work had been cleaned, and opinion, albeit still divided, had hardened against it.