Two Sales at Christie's

Christie's in Paris is hosting two significant sales featuring masterpieces from the legendary Veil-Picard collection, which had been largely inaccessible to the public and scholars for decades. Highlights include a perfect Watteau drawing unseen on the market since 1900 and two major Hubert Robert paintings commissioned by the famed salonnière Madame Geoffrin, offering a rare glimpse into 18th-century Parisian interiors.

These sales are a major event for Old Master enthusiasts and institutions, as they represent a rare opportunity to acquire works of museum quality with exceptional provenance. The dispersal of such a mythic collection could reshape holdings in public institutions, with hopes that masterpieces like the Robert paintings find a public home, continuing the legacy of a collection long admired from afar by experts like former Louvre director Pierre Rosenberg.