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Greek Art Shrugs Off Financial Gloom At Bonhams With £3.8M Sale And 14 World Records
http://www.bonhams.com/greek
Bonhams latest Greek Art Sale at New Bond Street on Monday 10 November, made a
total of £3.8m - a result that shrugged off the financial gloom. This was
a good result for this market sector which has performed strongly over the past
few years. The sale broke 14 world records for Greek artists.
Top picture in the sale, `The Painter’s Family’, (1920-21) a masterpiece
by Dimitrios Galanis sold for £264,000. This painting survived German bombing
of Piraeus but was lost until it surfaced at this sale in London.
Although it has not been seen for in public for 80 years its provenance includes
time in the Collection Girardin, France and the George Stringos collection in
Athens. It was first exhibited in Paris in 1921 and again in1922, and in Athens
in 1928.
“The best picture Galanis ever gave us is his Family” said D. Evangelidhes
and Ambassador D. Athanassopoulos wondered in 1982, “Where might this Galanis
masterpiece be today?” He asked this question in his book D. Galanis 1879-1966,
referring to this monumental work that was exhibited in Paris along with paintings
by Picasso and Bonnard and was included in the major 1928 Galanis retrospective
at the Iliou Melathron (Schliemann Mansion) in Athens. This definitive Galanis,
which was highly praised by critics and collectors alike, was a rare jewel in
one of the most prominent interwar collections of Modern Greek art that survived
the 1941 and 1944 Piraeus bombings and the dark days of German occupation. It
was then lost for decades before being rediscovered at the Stringos mansion in
Kifissia, its appearance at Bonhams marking the first time it is seen publicly
in 80 years.
Terpsichore Angelopoulou of Art Expertise, Bonhams agents in Greece, said after
the sale: “We knew we had a fantastic selection of some of the best artists
in Greece but we could not know how they would do in the current economic climate.
So we are delighted with this result which saw 70 percent of the lots sold. Buyers
were almost exclusively Greek, purchasing the work of artists that they know and
love. Greek art remains one of the most buoyant parts of the art market.”
Another great image, lot 16 in the Bonhams sale of Greek Art was ‘The sailing
boat SEVASTON approaching the Corinth canal’ by Volanakis which sold for
£240,000.
This captivating portrait of a two-masted vessel briskly sailing in a fresh breeze
off the mouth of the Corinth Canal, exudes an air of confidence, power and mastery
of the forces of nature.
Knowledgeable about ships and well equipped to describe them in detail, Volanakis
captured the smooth-flowing vessel in all its splendour, producing an accurate
and convincing picture which belongs to the great nineteenth century European
tradition of ship portraiture. The value of the ship portrait, which had its heyday
in England and coincided with the boom in the shipping industry, lay for its owner-audience
in its likeness to the original, its success largely depending on the visual accuracy
of the observer-artist.
Lot 31, Landscape of Northern Greece (possibly Chalkidiki) by Constantinos Maleas
(1879-1928) made £240,000.
WORLD RECORDS ACHIEVED:
LOT 9 MONSTED
LOT 27 GALANIS
LOT 50 SIKELIOTIS
LOT 59 PRASSINOS
LOT 72 PERANDINOS
LOT 73 MYTARAS
LOT 95 STAMOS (FOR A GREEK SALE)
LOT 120 MANOLIDIS
LOT 130 BOKOROS
LOT 132 PREKAS (WATER COLOUR)
LOT 133 RINAS
LOT 149 MANOUSAKIS
LOT 150 KALOGEROPOULOU
LOT 167 BALABANIDIS
For more information on Greek Art at Bonhams go to www.bonhams.com/greek
For more information please contact Julian Roup at Bonhams Press Office on 0207
468 8259 or email julian.roup@bonhams.com or press@bonhams.com
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers
of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November
2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the
company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast
of America and in August 2003, Goodmans, a leading Australian fine art and antiques
auctioneer with salerooms in Sydney, joined the Bonhams Group of Companies. Today,
Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms
in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further seven throughout
the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston
in the USA; and Switzerland, France, Monaco, Australia, Hong Kong and Dubai. Bonhams
has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries
offering sales advice and valuation services in 57 specialist areas. For a full
listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments, go
to www.bonhams.com. (January 2008)
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