From a 2.5K Circle of Jan Brueghel to a 130K Adrian van Stalbemt in one year!

Galerie Bassenge, from Germany, sells on 1 December 2017 an "Adriaen van Stalbemt" Allegory of the Four Elements, estimated at 130,000 to 140,000 Euro.

It was for sale last year at Cambi, in Italy, with an estimate of 2,500 to 3,000 Euro, attributed to the circle of Jan Brueghel II. I discussed this clearly underestimated work in November 2016, correcting the description (they thought it an allegory of the seasons instead). I cautiously estimated it at 10,000 Euro at least, but it easily surpassed even that to end up with a sale price of 32,000 Euro.

Now it has been cleaned and attributed to Adriaen van Stalbemt. Some caution should be taken with that attribution, Dr. Klaus Ertl is writing a catalogue raisonnée of van Stalbemt at the moment and seems sometimes overenthusaistic in attributing everything somewhat related to Van Stalbemt. Having said that, it clearly is a work by a good painter and deserves further attention.

I doubt though that it will fetch more than 100,000 Euro, that seems steep in any case.

UPDATE: apparently not sold, now on 24 April 2018 for sale at Kinsky, for 70,000 to 140,000 Euro.  I hope for whoever bought it that the painting didn't reach its peak during the bid battle in 2016 and will fail to sell again!

Painting I highlighted now at TEFAF!

Weiss Gallery, an important Old Masters Dealer, is present at the major TEFAF art fair in Maastricht. And what do I spot when they Tweet about it but a painting I highlighted nearly exactly a year ago as being a good bargain, and which ended up being one of the biggest sleepers I had posted about ever?

It's nice to see what happens to paintings you care about after the initial auction has passed. This one ideally should go to a major Belgian museum, but they most likely lack the necessary funds for it.