Just one day before its Old Masters sale in New York, Christie’s pulled the auction's top lot, El Greco’s Saint Sebastian (around 1610-1614), estimated between $7m to $9m, after the Romanian government blocked the sale.
According to a report by Romania Insider, the Romanian prime minister Marcel Ciolacu said that a team of lawyers hired by the government managed to block the sale of the painting since it is part of Romania’s heritage. Ciolacu added that the lawyers are pursuing the recovery of the work through legal proceedings at the Paris Judicial Tribunal and this is only the first step in the recovery of the work.
A Christie’s spokesperson issued a brief statement late Tuesday (4 February): "We received an inquiry about the work. Christie’s takes these matters seriously and out of an abundance of caution is withdrawing the lot at this time We look forward to selling this unique and spectacular work at a later date.”
Christie’s will hold the painting until the end of the month, according to Romania Insider, as the government pursues its legal action. Christie’s declined to comment further.
According to Christie’s catalogue entry on the El Greco (now removed from Christie’s website), King Carol I of Romania acquired the painting by 1898 and bequeathed it to the institution of the Romanian Crown the following year. It was transferred to King Michael of Romania in 1947 and stayed in the country until 1976 when ownership was transferred to Wildenstein & Co gallery in New York.
The prominent art advisory group Giraud Pissarro Segalot, which disbanded in 2011, acquired the painting for a private client in 2010. That anonymous collector is the consignor. The painting was backed by a third party guarantee, adding extra pressure to resolving the matter.
It is unclear how the interval of 15 years between the time of the private acquisition and the expected sale at Christie’s went unnoticed by Romanian authorities and whether any statute of limitations has expired.
Autograph works by El Greco are rare to market and the current record stands at £9.1m ($13.9m) for Saint Dominic in prayer that sold at Sotheby’s London in July 2013.
It is believed the oval painting of the tortured saint was in the artist’s Toledo studio at the time of his death. It was included in the traveling retrospective organised by the Museo del Prado in Madrid in 1982-83. The Prado owns another version.
Without its star entry the Christie's sale took in $19.5m ($22.4m with fees), shy of its $22.2m low estimate and with a 25% buy-in rate.