Old Timers Make Big Bucks in July’s Art News

At the end of each month, I enjoy surveying the month’s top art-world news stories. This month, Titian, Apex, and Dolley Madison shatter auction records. Who’s Apex? Read on. And farewell to Bill Viola, who died on July 12. He was a pioneer video artist who imagined a new visual language for life, loss, love, and faith.

On July 2, only two days before Tories got a flying boot, Christie’s London sold The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, a small, early, exquisite Titian painting that for years was in an aristocratic collection in Wiltshire. It went for $22,178,000, including the buyer’s premium, on an estimate of $20 million to $30 million. Though it sold on the low end, Flight into Egypt breaks Titian’s auction record, last set in 2011 for a Sacra Conversazione sold at Sotheby’s for $16.9 million.

About the Author

Brian T. Allen

Brian T. Allen is National Review’s art critic.

At the end of each month, I enjoy surveying the month’s top art-world news stories. This month, Titian, Apex, and Dolley Madison shatter auction records. Who’s Apex? Read on. And farewell to Bill Viola, who died on July 12. He was a pioneer video artist who imagined a new visual language for life, loss, love, and faith.

On July 2, only two days before Tories got a flying boot, Christie’s London sold The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, a small, early, exquisite Titian painting that for years was in an aristocratic collection in Wiltshire. It went for $22,178,000, including the buyer’s premium, on an estimate of $20 million to $30 million. Though it sold on the low end, Flight into Egypt breaks Titian’s auction record, last set in 2011 for a Sacra Conversazione sold at Sotheby’s for $16.9 million.