Old Master Sales Up 47 Percent (But A Downside)

“London’s auctions of old-master pictures, from Raphael to Turner, rose 47 percent at Sotheby’s and Christie’s last week, helped by an influx of new buyers. Many high-priced works failed to sell. The results showed that while the auction houses have been successful in drawing new buyers from the U.S. to Russia, they overestimated the appeal of many earlier works.”