04/02/2002

Record sales for the Austrian auction house Dorotheum that closed 2001 with overall revenues of € 68.3 million ($ 59 million), a result never before achieved in the auction house’s history. According to management, joining the International Auctioneers was a crucial factor. The IA is an association of ten auction houses whose aim is to promote the business of its members in the international field, focusing on potential synergies to be gained from a common marketing platform. The results of the auctions devoted to 20th century art which the IA staged simultaneously in Vienna, Milan, Cologne, Zurich, Paris, Madrid and Los Angeles were satisfying. Deux jeunes femmes en chapeau by Pierre-Auguste Renoir was sold for € 107,400 ($ 92,600) and three paintings by Alfons Walde fetched more than € 72,000 ($ 62,000). As regards the 19th century, the highest price was raised by Motif near Plankenberg by Emil Jakob Schindler, sold for € 197.200 ($ 169.900). The best performances of 2001 in the Old Master paintings department were the Portrait of King Philip IV of Spain by Peter Paul Rubens, which sold for € 222,900 ($ 192,500), and the Portrait of the Duke of Savoy by Titian hammered at € 188,000 ($ 162,200). (Annalisa Rossi)