This week’s sales of Old Master paintings has been a refreshing surprise with numerous strong sales in the middle market below £1m and many strong, above estimate sales in the $5m range. Bloomberg adds this:

“We’re seeing the internationalization of the Old-Master market,” Jussi Pylkkanen, president of Christie’s Europe, said after the sale. “Asian and Russian clients are now buying.”

Constable’s The Lock was the top lot of the week and it sold off the guarantee which appears to have come from beyond Europe:

The work was guaranteed to sell courtesy of a third party “irrevocable bidder” that dealers identified as one of the auction house’s Russian clients. There were no other bidders and the unidentified guarantor was the buyer, Christie’s said.

In addition, Bloomberg identifies other non-European buyers:

Asian bidders paid a further 2.6 million pounds and 1.8 million pounds respectively for 17th-century still lives by Balthasar van der Ast and Adriaen Coorte from the collection.

Asian New Money Fights Russia, Constable Tops $133 Million Sale (Bloomberg)