Rembrandt's Saint Leads Sotheby's $40.6m Old Master Evening Auction

A work by Rembrandt, which had a guarantee, was the headline sale at Sotheby's 'Old Master & 19th Century Paintings Evening Auction' on December 3 in London.

• The sale totaled $40.57m (GBP30.67m), meeting the pre-sale estimate.

Snapshot of the sale

• 23 works sold totaling $40.57m.
• Estimates totaled: $29.52m (low) and $43.77m (high), excluding premiums.
• The sell-through rate was 77% of the original 30 lots announced.

The star lot was: Rembrandt, Saint John on Patmos, half-length, his folded hands resting on the cover of a book, a palm tree behind him and his emblem of an eagle to the right, his head based on the features of Titus van Rijn (Undated), which sold for $8.93m, 35% above its $6.61m low estimate. The work was backed by a guarantee. It has been traded 17 times in the past.

The outperformer sold for 220% above its low estimate. Eglon Hendrik van der Neer, Two boys with a mousetrap and a cat at a window (1676), sold for $336,000 ($104,900 low estimate). It has been traded 9 times in the past.

• 12 works, or 52%, sold above their high estimate.
• 10 works, or 43%, sold within their low and high estimate.
• 1 works, or 4%, sold below their low estimate.
• 0 sold with undisclosed estimates.

Guaranteed sales

5 works were backed by guarantees, including: The Master Of The Sherborne Almshouse Triptych, A Triptych with the Five Miracles of Christ (Undated). It sold for $7.49m, 128% above its $3.28m low estimate.. It has not been traded before.

Works that did not sell

7 works were bought-in, including: Willem van de Velde the Elder, Dutch shipping under way in a moderate breeze from the anchorage off Vlieland (Undated), estimated at $1.57m (low) to $2.36m (high). It has been traded 6 times in the past.

Withdrawn before the sale

0 works were withdrawn

Terms and definitions

All results include the fees and premiums added to the price of a work of art when the auctioneer's hammer falls. Estimates, sale prices and totals are converted into US dollars. Sale prices are compared to the auction house’s low estimate, which do not include premiums.

Guarantees: Sometimes an auction house guarantees to pay a seller for a work, regardless of whether the bidding reaches the reserve price, a figure that is typically confidential.

Bought-in: If there are no bids for a work, or if bidding falls short of the reserve price, the lot is unsold or “bought-in”.

Withdrawn: This happens when a seller decides, for whatever reason, to withdraw a work before the bidding begins.

Premiums: Typically a sliding-scale of charges paid in addition to the hammer price by the buyer, plus any other fees.