DAVID Teniers the Younger’s whimsical 6 x 8 1/2in (16 x 22cm), oil on copper view of Monkeys Playing Cards, sold to a private buyer against the London trade for a double-estimate €220,000 (£146,665) at Tajan on June 24.
Sale expert Eric Turquin said the work was fresh to the market
and that monkeys are a "fashionable subject, very funny."
Turquin had less to laugh about at the start of the month, when Le
Singe Antiquaire, presented as a work by Chardin and granted an
estimate of €400,000-600,000, was withdrawn from the Eve sale on
June 3 after former Louvre curator Pierre Rosenberg questioned the
attribution. Turquin said the work had generated enormous interest
even though it had always been considered a strange Chardin. It is
also considered by some to be the pendant of another monkey picture
- displayed as a Chardin at the Louvre throughout Rosenberg's
tenure.
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