A set of silver playing cards made $500,000 while two baroque marbles sold for more than five times their low estimate in an auction of a family collection at Christie’s in New York last week.
The Global Treasury: The Life and Collection of Selim & Mary Zilkha was packed with interesting items, including many lots from Selim’s world-class collection of silver.
They included a full set of silver playing cards from 17th-Century Germany that realised $567,000 against an estimated price range of $500,000 to $800,000.
The top priced item though was a surprise.
A pair of marble statues by Giuseppe Piamontini went into the sale with a $200,000 to $300,000 estimate. They sold for $1.07 million.
The statues show Jupiter and Juno and are each nearly a metre tall. They were carved from white marble in the 1720s by Piamontini, one of the best sculptors of his period in Florence.
Describing the statues, Christie’s noted: “The present marbles, brilliantly and exuberantly carved, exhibit this same virtuosic handling of stone, turning marble into fluttering fabric.”
Sculpture was particularly important during the Baroque period, a stylistic period in art and cultural history that runs from the early 17th Century to around the middle of the 18th. Bernini, the great Italian sculptor, was the greatest exponent in the style that is seen in many of the finest public sculptures in Rome.
The silver cards were described by Christie’s as “extremely rare” and had a long and distinguished provenance linking them to Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American royalty. They were made in Germany.
Mr Zikha was born in Iraq but lived most of his life in the US and UK, where he is best known as the founder of the Mothercare chain of stores. He was an enthusiastic collector, particularly of silver.
