(Newswire.net — February 2, 2015) — London, UK – Christie’s auction house in London thought they earned decent money when they sold a $1,000 valuated painting to a collector who paid $5,212 for it. Now, they probably are eating them hearts out because the same painting was estimated up to $3 million and recently sold at Sotheby’s for $5.2 million.
According to CNN report, “Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows” a painting of an 19th-century English landscape by John Constable was declared not to be painted by him, but instead by one of his followers and valued between $700 and $1200. The Sotheby’s, however, declared it original and valued the painting between $2 million and $3 million.
Reportedly, famed English Romantic landscape artist John Constable painted this picture as the preparation for another work owned by the Tate gallery in London.
Anne Lyles, former 18th and 19th century British art curator at the Tate, wrote in a catalog for the Sotheby’s auction the reason why Christie’s “overlooked” its authenticity in 2013.
“The present work by Constable was heavily retouched with a dark and opaque pigments which probably dated to the late 19th or early 20th century, in a misguided attempt to ‘finish’ the painting,” she explained.
“The retouchings on the present painting were readily soluble in the course of its recent cleaning, and Constable’s original and brilliant conception has been once again revealed,” Lyles wrote.
Christie’s, however, said that some experts disagree about the painting’s authenticity.
“We are aware that Sotheby’s have sold this work as by Constable,” the auction house said in a statement. “We took the view at the time of our sale in 2013 that it was by a ‘follower of.’ We understand that there is no clear consensus of expertise on the new attribution.”
Lyles wrote that the painting recently sold was one of five preliminary oil sketches, precursors to “perhaps the greatest of his [Constable’s] late masterpieces,” a work that goes by the same name.
It is believed the sketch was possibly sold by the artist in 1837 for 6 pounds — or about $9 today.
John Constable (1776-1837) was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as “Constable Country”
“I should paint my own places best”, he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, “painting is but another word for feeling”.
Although his paintings are now among the most popular and valuable in British art, Constable was never financially successful. In 2012, the Constable painting “The Lock” became one of the most expensive British paintings ever sold, fetching $34.8 million at an auction at Christie’s in London.