A highlight at Christie’s was a masterpiece of northern European mannerism by Bartholomeus Spranger. The painting had been looted by the Nazis, and was returned last month to the victim’s descendants. The painting was chased by New York dealer Nicholas Hall, but sold for six times its estimate to a Belgian collector, who is repatriating his country’s cultural history and spent £4.5 million at the sale on artists born and working in Antwerp.

A recently salvaged and restored Leonardo da Vinci painting has sold or a record-breaking $450.3 million at Christie's New York. Nicholas Hall interviewed by Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News Tonight With Dermot Murnaghan on November 16, 2017.

Just a dozen years ago, a worn, touched-up, old painting of Christ went for less than $10,000 (8,450 euros) at an estate sale. On Wednesday, it was auctioned for a record-breaking $450 million (380 million euros) as a long-lost Leonardo da Vinci dubbed “the Last da Vinci” or the “male Mona Lisa.” Years of painstaking cleaning and study led scholars to authenticate it as Leonardo’s roughly 500-year-old “Salvator Mundi,” Latin for “Savior of the World.” But some experts are stunned at the jaw-dropping price for a painting with a patchy history and heavy restoration.

“There is extraordinary consensus it is by Leonardo,” said Nicholas Hall, the former co-chairman of old master paintings at Christie’s, who now runs his own Manhattan gallery. “This is the most important old master painting to have been sold at auction in my lifetime.”

“There is extraordinary consensus it is by Leonardo,” said Nicholas Hall, the former co-chairman of old master paintings at Christie’s, who now runs his own Manhattan gallery. “This is the most important old master painting to have been sold at auction in my lifetime.”

Building on its huge success from last year, the second iteration of October Art Week will kick off on October 26, from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. with a round of convivial Upper East Side gallery open-houses – organized to coincide with TEFAF New York and Christie’s Classic Art Week of auctions and selling exhibitions. Nineteen of the world’s most noted fine and decorative art dealers will add to the week’s electricity by curating and hosting special exhibitions—all within strolling distance of one another.

Building on its huge success from last year, the second iteration of October Art Week will kick off on October 26, from 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. with a round of convivial Upper East Side gallery open-houses – organized to coincide with TEFAF New York and Christie’s Classic Art Week of auctions and selling exhibitions. Nineteen of the world’s most noted fine and decorative art dealers will add to the week’s electricity by curating and hosting special exhibitions—all within strolling distance of one another. 

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As Nicholas Hall, a Christie’s veteran who recently opened his own gallery on the Upper East Side, noted, Thursday’s sale was truly “Basquiat or bust.”