In the event just three lots failed to sell and the auction netted a premium inclusive £2.7m. The biggest contribution came from this 4ft 7in (1.4m) high Egyptian sandstone figure of King Mentuhotep III, dated to c.2010-1998 B.C. which led the sale at a treble-estimate £720,000.
Acquired by David Sylvester from Sotheby’s December 1970 sale of works from the Hagop Kervorkian Foundation, it was one of six figures excavated at Armant in 1936-7 by the Egypt Exploration Society. Last week it was battled out by a telephone bidder and by independent consultant Martine Newby acting for a client, with the hammer falling to the telephone bidder.
David Sylvester collection nets £2.7m
It was standing room only at Sotheby’s Bond Street on February 26 when the auctioneers sold the David Sylvester collection. In a room packed with dealers, collectors and friends of the late art critic, plus a phalanx of Sotheby’s staff manning a bank of telephones, the auctioneers offered 149 lots of paintings, drawings, sculpture, tribal art and antiquities, and as lot after lot outstripped the estimates, it was clear that their £1m projection was going to be dramatically exceeded.
