Caneletto Painting Sells for Double Auctioneer’s Expectation

Once upon a time, a painter had to be able to paint. Rather than create performance art that strikes at the preconceptions of the post-modern apathy of suburbanites (or whatever it is), artists had to have some technical ability. The mess that is modern art arose when the Impressionists decided they were more interested in absinthe than art. So it was particularly heartening to see that a Caneletto sold at Christie’s in London for £11 million, about twice what the auction house expected.

The painting doesn’t seem to have a title, and the BBC said, “The painting shows the Doge of Venice's barge, the Bucintoro, with crowds on what is thought to be Ascension Day, when the Doge blessed the city.” It is a fine picture with the expected qualities of a Caneletto: Venetian canals, soft but vital colors and an unmatched eye for detail. The fact is Giovanni Antonio Canale (to use his real name) was a better painter than Picasso or Van Gogh, and works like this prove it.

The painting had been in the collection of Portuguese businessman Antonio Champalimaud, who passed away last year after a lifetime of being pretty rich. His fortune was around $3.1 billion when he died in May, and the proceeds from the sale of his entire collection will go to medical research. Until this sale, the most expensive Canaletto had been the “Old Horse Guards from St James's Park” that Andrew Lloyd Weber bought in 1992 for £9.2 million.

That is a far cry from the ridiculous prices that art works commanded back in the days of booming stock markets. Van Gogh’s Portrait of Dr. Gachet sold for $82.5 million at Christie's, New York on May 15, 1990; Renoir’s Au Moulin de la Galette went for $78.1 million at Sotheby's, New York on May 17, 1990 (Japanese businessman Ryoei Sato bought both); and Cezanne’s Still Life with Curtain, Pitcher, and Bowl of Fruit brought in $60.5 million from Sotheby's, New York on May 10, 1999 (the buyer here was anonymous).

Caneletto and the rest of the Venetian School haven’t been popular in ages, which is rather an indictment of those who can afford to collect. Selling a painting for twice what one expected can only bring a certain notoriety to the artist. Sales price doesn’t reflect talent, naturally; indeed, money can’t buy taste. On the other hand, not every collector be devoid of that trait – as the £11 million proves.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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