Timia Art Research, colección de arte, investigación, catalogación

Why an Art Collection

Making art an element of our daily life is one of the most enriching objectives that a person who loves this universe can achieve.

The analysis that can be made of the context of the art market throughout 2022, is more than surprising: celebrated has been the resurgence of fairs and cultural events as Tefaf Maastricht, (to whom the magazine Forbes dedicated an article on the exquisiteness of the booth presentation); Brafa Art Fair; Fireze and Frieze Masters, the acclaimed ArtBasel or London Art Week, with the excellent pieces auctioned at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. .

The revival of artistic events has undoubtedly contributed to the record prices of different lots sold in national and international auction rooms. Just to name a few examples, we can focus on the portrait of Velazquez auctioned at Abalarte Madrid (4.5 million euros, being inexportable); the unpublished still life of Jean-Baptiste Siméon Chardin (17th century) auctioned at Artcurial Paris with a price of more than 24 million euros or the portrait of Lady of Rubens sold to Desa Unicum Poland for 3.1 million.

To all these Old Masters must be added the exceptional Ecce Homo by Sandro Boticelli, sold at Sotheby’s New York for more than 45 million euros.

If we look at Avant-Garde and Contemporary art, memorable are the sums of works such as the more than 79 million Euros made at Sotheby’s London for Empire of Lights (1961) by René Magritte; The Foxes (1913), a painting spoliated during World War II by the German expressionist master Franz Marc; The Triptych 1986-7 (1986-1987) by Francis Bacon, which exceeded 51 million euros, or the more than 195 million euros of the celebrated Shot Sage Blue Marilyn by Warhol sold by Christie’s New York.

In relation to the value attained by these pieces, two are the most important lait motiv The first is the quality of the works, and the second is the work of research and study carried out by historians to recover the identity, which has faded if not been lost in its entirety, of these assets.

The examples are clear:

  • The Portrait of a Gentleman by Velázquez (1621/23) was part of the collection of the Most Excellent Lords Viscounts of Roda, and was published in 1924 in the Boletín de la Sociedad Española de Excursiones; and in 1999 in Archivo Español de Arte.
  • The basket of wild fruits, signed: J.S. Chardin, was part of the Paris Salon exhibition of 1761, passing in 1862 to the Eudoxia Marcille collection and then to Monsieur et Madame Chevrier-Marcille de Paris. Long is his journey, until in 2012-2013 was exhibited at the Mitsubischi Ichigokan Museum in Tokyo, traveling the previous years between Düsseldorf, London, New York and Madrid.
  • The appearance on the market of Rubens’ portrait of a Lady was a real revolution as it was the first in Poland. Mystery shrouds the piece as for over 300 years it was believed to be a portrait of Isabella Brant, Rubens’ first wife. Currently, it is thought that it could represent one of her sisters, although the juiciest hypothesis suggests that, because of the rich jewels and gems, as well as the elaborate openwork of the dress, she could be a member of the Duarte family, influential Antuerpian jewelers of the seventeenth century. If the attribution to Rubens has been confirmed, it has been thanks to the work of different institutions, such as the Courtrauld Institut in London, which was in charge of its study and cataloguing. The work carried out has shown that this portrait is of higher executive quality than the other two existing versions preserved in the Mauritshuis in The Hague and the Wallace Collection in London.
  • Botticelli’s exceptional Ecce Homo with its delicate nimbus of passional angels done in grisaille, was part of the private collection of opera singer Adelaide Kemble Sartoris (1815 – 1879) until 1963 when her heirs put it up for sale and it was acquired by the owner who kept it until 2022. The importance of the piece was highlighted when Federico Zeri identified it as the work of the Florentine Renaissance master. Thanks to the importance and value of the piece, it has been requested to be part of the Minneapolis Museum of Art’s exhibition, Boticcelli and Renaissance Florence: Masterworks from the Uffizi to be held between October 2022 and January 2023.

Just with these few examples we can appreciate how art is a safe value on which to invest, as long as you have the right advice from a professional who has solid knowledge based on a critical criterion built on historical-artistic foundations.

Establishing this type of relationship generates trust for the person interested in collecting these goods, feeling support and backing in their decisions.