Unidentified copies at Carlo Bonte

Carlo Bonte, from Belgium, sells some at first sight interesting works in their auction on 27 March 2019. However, they turn out to be copies of better works, which is a pity.

Lot 979 is a Lamentation, described as "Southern Netherlands, 17th century, no visible signature", and estimated at 1,000 to 1,500 Euro. It is a rather dull copy of a Van Dyck from the Royal Museum of Antwerp.

Lot 996 is a Susanna and the Elders, with a description of "Southern Netherlands, 16th century", and an estimate of 2,000 to 3,000 Euro. It is based on a ca. 1600 engraving by Anthnie Wierix after a design by Maerten de Vos. As such, the estimate seems to high.

One other lot that caught my eye is 981, a series of 4 huge paintings (about 2 by 3 metres each!) by Flori Van Acker (Bruges, 1858-1940), neo-romantic painter and director of the Bruges Academy. The condition isn't brilliant, and they are not the best paintings ever, but these four together, some 20 square metres of painting by a known artist, is estimated at 500 to 1,000 Euro only! I guess in this case their size may actually be a disadvantage, as they are too big for most homes, and they seem to be unframed which would add a serious cost to get them presentable. The subject matter, missionary work, also isn't fashionable.

Still, even a work like the one above, in it's typical provincial Art Nouveau advertising poster style (Neogothic with a flourish), should easily fetch the estimate on its own, as it is a striking image, done with great skill. It's hard to predict if this kind of painting will ever get fashionable again, but it seems unimaginable that they may get even less in favour than they are now.