Just in time for the holiday season, Old Masters are back on top of the market making over $124 million at auction last week. Christie's totaled $21.8 million, while Sotheby’s Old Master and British paintings sale came in at $84.4 million. With top lots being van Dyck's portrait of the composer Hendrik Liberti which sold for $4.5 million, J.M.W. Turner's oil Rome, from Mount Aventine (1835) which sold for $47.4 million, and Three Peaches on a Stone Ledge by Adriaen Coorte selling for $5.4 million. Interestingly enough the Coorte was last auctioned at Bonhams in 2011 where it sold for $3.2 million. That is certainly not a bad return by any means and shows just how great an investment an Old Master is.
