2 17th December 2011 news
Campaigners celebrate victory over Burlington Arcade plans
SILVER dealer Daniel Bexfi eld has claimed a moral victory over the Burlington Arcade planning row after most of the controversial proposals were withdrawn – and others turned down at the consultation meeting on December 8. Westminster Council approved only
part of the watered down plans last Thursday, having noted that the public submitted more than 500 individual responses commenting on them, only one of which was in support. By Thursday’s meeting, proposals for
art installations by Anthony Gormley (and the lighting they required) had been withdrawn, along with another for mosaic marble fl ooring. Fears that the existing brickwork
would be overpainted proved to be unfounded while an application to repaint areas in off white were deemed in keeping with the original condition of the Georgian building. At the meeting the Council granted
proposals for concealed uplighting (judged to be of at least as much merit as the existing lighting design, which is not original) but turned down the revised plan for paving the arcade fl oor
in a single, neutral-coloured stone (they wished to see the use of more than one colour). Daniel Bexfi eld, who has led the
campaign against the plans, declared himself “absolutely delighted” with the results adding that the Council “understood the concept of the arcade and the essence of its small businesses.” Not covered by the current planning
application is the number and size of shop units within the arcade and it is thought that co-owners Meyer Bergman and Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities want to amalgamate more of them to create a smaller number of large single units to appeal more to leading luxury brands. Nonetheless, the Council’s planning
documents note: “The number and size of the shops contributes signifi cantly to the character of the arcade. Whilst the city council has no control over the types of retailers who may occupy the units, it would have control over proposals to amalgamate units to form larger shops, because this would require physical alterations which would require listed building consent.”
Roland Arkell Exhibiting at the New York Ceramics Fair 17th-22nd January
Above: at Christie’s evening sale of Old Master and British pictures this large oil on canvas by Pieter Brueghel the Younger made £6.1m, a new auction record for the artist.
Brueghel leads London’s masters
THE strong competition that emerged for some of the most exciting pictures at the latest Old Master sales in London helped lift the series and compensated for the lack of interest at lower levels. The auctions were punctuated by a
number of record prices for quality works in good condition, but elsewhere bidding failed to take off as the market appeared as selective as ever. Overall, the auctions at Sotheby’s,
Christie’s and Bonhams made a combined hammer total of close to £48m (including day sales) which compared to £52m for the equivalent series last year. The much-talked-about portrait of an
old man by Velázquez at Bonhams left many in the saleroom underwhelmed when it sold for a mid-estimate £2.6m. It was knocked down to New York dealer Otto Naumann who was bidding in the room against competition from an interested party on the telephone. More competition here came for a still
life by the Dutch painter Adriaen Coorte which attracted fi ve bidders against a £300,000-500,000 estimate and sold to Sotheby’s-owned gallery Noortman Master Paintings at a record £1.8m. The top lot of the week came at
John Howard at Heritage 6 Market Place, WOODSTOCK OX20 1TA
john@johnhoward.co.uk +44 (0)7831 850544
www.antiquepottery.co.uk
Christie’s evening sale on December 6 when Pieter Brueghel the Younger’s (c.1565-1638) The Battle between Carnival and Lent took £6.1m against a £3.5m-4.5m estimate. It was knocked down to a telephone manned by Cécile Bernard, director of Christie’s Old Master department in Paris. The 3ft 11in x 5ft 7in (1.19 x 1.71m)
oil on canvas had last sold at Christie’s in December 2006 for £2.9m where it was
bought by a European private buyer, and so the price here represented a signifi cant increase over the fi ve years. Normally the market favours fresh
material, but here the sense that there may be few opportunities remaining to purchase such a large and busy Brueghel in such good condition appears to have propelled the price upwards. Another version of the same subject
in the same size by Brueghel the Younger took £1.75m at Christie’s last December but it was not in as good condition. Christie’s 36-lot sale lasted two hours
as records came for two further Dutch pictures: an exceptional marine by Willem van de Velde the Younger, which sold to a private Dutch buyer on the phone at £5.25m, and Govaert Flinck’s An Old Man at a Casement which was knocked down at £2.05m to London-based dealer Jean- Luc Baroni. These results boosted the sale’s hammer
total to £21m (estimate £18.2m-26.5m) with 26 lots fi nding buyers. Meanwhile, Sotheby’s sale the following
night made £17.4m, just below the presale estimate with 26 of the 38 lots getting away. The top lot was the pair of Johann Zoffany paintings of the actor David Garrick which were knocked down for a low-estimate £6m in the room to London dealers Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, reportedly on behalf of The Garrick Club in London – although neither the auction house or club itself would confi rm this. A record also came for Jan Steen’s Card
Players in an Interior despite selling below estimate at £4.3m. The work was subject to a third-party guarantee.
Alex Capon
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