Sotheby’s $51.8m Saunders collection falls short, but still breaks Old Masters record

A group of world-class Old Master paintings expected to break the auction record for a single-owner collection of the genre fell below estimates on Wednesday (21 May) at Sotheby’s New York, achieving a sell-through rate of just 62% and continuing a troubled spring auction season.

When Sotheby’s announced the consignment of the late Wall Street banker Thomas Saunders and his wife Jordan’s collection earlier this year, the auction house expected the fully-guaranteed horde to beat its own record set in 2023, when the 10-lot Fisch-Davidson collection sold for $41.9m ($49.5m with fees) in January 2023. An additional painting from this collection, by Rembrandt, sold for $26.1m (with fees) later that year, bringing the record total for a single-owner Old Masters collection at auction to $76m (including fees).

The first of the two Saunders sales, a 43-lot dedicated day sale, was estimated to bring in the bulk of the collection’s value, between $77.2m and $112.6m (all estimates calculated without fees), not accounting for two lots withdrawn just before the sale began. However, following those two withdrawals and 16 further lots failing to sell, the Saunders horde fetched just $53.8m ($64.7m with fees). While Sotheby’s noted the sale broke the record for the most valuable single-owner Old Masters sale on a single day, it did not surpass the Fisch-Davidson collection by overall sale value.

The Saunders collected mainly Dutch still lifes, Venetian views and portraits of children, amassing their trove over nearly 30 years with help from Sotheby’s longtime co-chairman of Old Master paintings George Wachter, according to the auction house. Before the sale, experts largely agreed the paintings were in excellent condition and had model provenance; Wachter previously told The Art Newspaper the Saunders often received private offers for the work in their collection. Some of the prices Wachter quoted were higher than what these paintings ending up selling for.

The Wednesday morning sale began normally enough, with the first few lots of paintings by Bartholomäus Bruyn the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens and Jan van Kessel the Elder selling at or just below their estimates. But the auction quickly hit a bump when the second of three charming studies of insects by Kessel failed to sell, after which three consecutive lots were also passed.

Competitive bidding was seen for the Dutch painter Adriaen Coorte’s 17th-century still life of a bowl of strawberries, which sold for $2.4m ($2.9m with fees) against a $2m to $3m estimate. The next lot and the second-most valuable in the sale was Jan Davidsz de Heem’s floral still life, which narrowly missed its $8m to $12m when it sold for $7.2m ($8.8m with fees).

One of the more popular lots in the Saunders sale was a pair of Frans Hall paintings, one showing a boy playing the violin and the other, a girl singing. The paintings were sold as a single lot for $6.5m ($7.9m with fees). Sassoferrato’s striking 17th-century portrait of the Madonna exceeded its estimate when it sold for $320,000 ($406,400 with fees). The next lot, an endearing portrait of a young 18th-century noble child in a powdered wig, was passed over when it fetched a bid of only $1.4m against a $2m to $3m estimate.

The most valuable lot of the sale was a pair of Venetian scenes by Francesco Guardi that sold for $9.5m ($10.5m with fees), just below its $10m to $15m estimate. Jean-Baptiste Santerre’s portrait of a young woman holding a love letter exceeded expectations when it sold for $200,000 ($254,000 with fees), more than double the low end of its estimated range.

After those two wins, it wasn’t long before more lots were passed over, including a portrait of UK prime minister Robert Peel’s daughter Julia that was estimated to sell for as much as $8m. “I’m getting nauseous,” a woman in the second row said after a fourth consecutive work failed to sell. Many of the lots in the Saunders sale were guaranteed in-house, meaning Sotheby’s will absorb the costs of the 16 lots that did not sell.

Still, there were bright spots: while the sale fell below expectations, many of the highest-value paintings sold, and the house set seven new artist records at auction, Chris Apostle, Sotheby’s international head of the Old Masters division, said after the sale.

The sale marked an artist record at auction for 18th-century Spanish painter Luis Meléndez, whose still life of a cauliflower, eggs and other kitchen goods sold for $5.1m ($6.2m with fees), just above its $5m to $8m estimate. A Brazilian landscape by Dutch painter Frans Post also set a record auction for the artist after a bidder in the room won the work for $6m ($7.3m).

Sotheby’s also recorded new clients and more cross-category bidding, as well as bids from across the Americas, Europe and particularly Asia, he added. “Given the fact that we’re in a world right now which is in influx and confusing, that felt very good, and that was markedly more strong than we’ve had in the past couple of sales,” Apostle said.

Sotheby’s will host an Old Master’s day sale on Thursday (22 May) that will feature 14 more lots from the Saunders collection, estimated to bring in between $740,000 and $1.1m.

“I’ve been doing this for 36 years, and the whole time people said, ‘Oh, you can’t put together a museum-level Old Masters collection anymore,’” Apostle said. “And of course, that simply wasn’t true.”

This year’s May New York auctions coincided with fears of fallout from US President Donald Trump’s tariff threats, stock market volatility and the continuing perception of a soft art market. During the Sotheby’s Modern evening sale last week, the auction house’s star lot of the season—an Alberto Giacometti bust expected to fetch at least $70m—failed to sell. The rest of the auction did better, with 40% of lots that weren’t passed exceeding their high estimate, and sales later in the week of art dealers’ private collections performed well.