The Hispanic Society of New York will auction 45 works of art to cover expenses

The Hispanic Society at (HS) New York will auction 45 works at Christie’s this October, mostly religious paintings from the 16th to 19th centuries signed by disciples of the great masters, to pay for the maintenance of your collection and potential purchases.

Christie’s auction, which will be digital, is presented under the title ‘Property of the Hispanic Society museum to benefit the care of the collection and the acquisitions fund‘, and its fifty pieces have a combined value estimated between 411,000 and 611,000 dollars, a spokesperson told Efe.

Christie’s showed Efe at its headquarters in New York a preview of the auction, composed of paintings from the workshops of great masters or modern copies, with two representative works: the one with the highest value, by an author who imitates El Greco, and another that will start for 100 dollarsby an imitator of Francisco de Zurbarán.

In that sense, the institution’s specialist in great masters, Oliver Rordorfhighlighted that it is “an exciting opportunity because the starting price is really affordable,” and points out that “the money is intended to support” the museum, which has been in financial problems for years.

“Half of the lots will be sold without reserve, which means that online bids will only start at $100. If no one else bids, one can buy a painting from this great cultural institution at a very reasonable price,” said Rordorf, inviting fans of Spanish art.

Grandmasters style

The outstanding work, with a estimated price between 100,000 and 150,000 dollarsis a portrait of ‘Saint Dominic praying‘ made by an artist from El Greco’s workshop, “possibly under his supervision”, which the HS purchased in the early 20th century under the academic belief that it was an original.

The painting follows the composition of El Greco’s original of the same name, which in 2013 became the most expensive ancient Spanish painting (10.7 million euros) and which modern research has attributed to his workshop, explains Rordorf, who points out “changes in the draping and facial type.”

The second piece shown is ‘Saint Francis of Assisi in ecstasy‘, a “modern copy of a painting by Zurbarán that is in a museum in Germany”, possibly commissioned by the New York institution also in the early 19th century. XX for academic study purposes, he adds.

Christie’s will open the auction on October 1 and will give interested parties from all over the world the opportunity to bid until October 17, when the house will give a digital ‘hammer blow’ work by work and the highest bidder wins.

The sale includes more pieces of a religious nature apart from those two, such as a portrait of Saint Jerome listening to the trumpet of the Last Judgmentsigned by the Flemish Hendrick de Somer.

There are also aristocratic portraits: one of the Queen Isabella of Bourbonby an artist from the circle of Peter Paul Rubens; another of Felipe IV, with the style of Diego Velázquez; and one family image of the Marquises of Villafranca signed by Agustín Esteve y Marqués, influenced by Goya.

Solutions to a financial crisis

The sale is part of the financial crisis of the HS, located in Upper Manhattan, far from the tourist center of the city, and which reopened in mid-2023, prompted by a workers’ strike, after a renovation of about 20 million dollars that kept it closed for five years.

The HS is a museum and research library for the study of the arts and culture of SpainPortugal, Latin America and the Philippines, founded in 1904 by the American magnate Archer M. Huntington and famous for housing the largest number of Sorollas outside of Spain.

Most of those Sorollas are not on view except for the ‘Vision of Spain’the series of large canvases that portray the country’s traditions, a circumstance often lamented by visitors to the HS, whose management has sought to resolve in a recent institutional agreement.

The Government of the Valencian Community and the HS have signed an agreement by which the museum will transfer some 220 works by Sorolla – without the ‘Vision of Spain’ – to be exhibited in Valencia, the painter’s city, which will also be its “European headquarters”, at a rate of 1.15 million euros per year.

The Valencian government and Hispanic aspire for their agreement to last “a minimum of 15 years”, according to the official document published at the beginning of September in the Official Gazette of the Generalitat Valenciana, which will give a lifeline to the New York institution.