by Antonio Gesino
The positive trend enjoyed by the Department of Old Masters, with the first semester in 2017 confirming its leading position in the market, continued with total hammer price sales – in two auctions – of 2,485,417 euro, with a percentage of lots sold of 72.1% and of 135.5% for lots sold in terms of value.
An important canvas by Valerio Castello, depicting the Discovery of Moses and representing one of the later masterpieces by the artist went under the hammer for 322,400 euro, whilst Cyrus Sacrificing to the Idol Bell, a painting undertaken by three artists, Jan Ross, Stefano Camogli and Domenico Piola, reached a figure in the saleroom of 86,800 euro. Also worthy of note were an oil on canvas by Federico Zuccari, The Resurrection of Christ, and an elegant Portrait of a Man with a Letter by a Lombard painter from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries close to the painter Giovanni Battista Moroni: both works went under the hammer for 47,120 euro.