Everett Fahy, who is also the former chairman of European paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is regarded as one of the leading scholars in Italian Renaissance art. The 46 lots in the collection include paintings, works on paper and various objects from the 14th to 20th century.
Emma Kronman described the collection, built up over the course of 40 years, as reflecting “the highly sophisticated eye of a connoisseur”, adding that the collection “provides a fascinating and intimate window into the world of a scholar who counted among his friends and advisees some of the most important curators and collectors of the 20th century”.
Among the works that feature in the collection are a panel showing St Peter by an artist close to the Sienese master Duccio di Buoninsegna (c1255-1318), one of several works given to Fahy by John Pope-Hennessy, his predecessor at the Met. This work features another figure, that of St Francis, in the background. The piece was rediscovered in 1969 and is estimated at $150,000-250,000, one of the highest estimates of the sale.
The sale runs on the closing day of the inaugural TEFAF New York.
Other pieces from the collection include a fragment from a Vatican choir book produced for Pope Leo X by Attavante degli Attavanti (est $15,000-20,000) and The Penetcost, a painting by 16th century painter Otto van Veen (est $15,000-25,000).
