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Friday, March 29, 2024

Rare Mishneh Torah Highlights Steinhardt Judaica Auction at Sotheby’s

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Lot 55 Frankfurt Mishneh Torah-Maimonides with Hagahot Maimuniyyot and Teshuvot Maimuniyyot, Northern Italy c.1457.
Lot 55 Frankfurt Mishneh Torah-Maimonides with Hagahot Maimuniyyot and Teshuvot Maimuniyyot, Northern Italy c.1457.
After exhibiting 30 works of the Judith and Michael Steinhardt Collection in Moscow and Jerusalem in Hong Kong, Singapore, Brazil and several European and U.S. cities pre-auction, the collection of philanthropist and former Wall Street money manager Michael Steinhardt and his wife came to auction at Sotheby’s NY on April 29th.

It sold well over pre-auction estimate of $11 million. The total realized was $8,541,645, including Buyer’s Premium plus the estimated amount that lot 55, the Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah 4.5 – 6 mill would have brought, had its sale been at auction rather than the ‘midnight surprise,’ the private sale, which greeted auction goers just before the first lot was called, when Jennifer Roth announced its private sale jointly to the Israel Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The full auction tally surely exceeded the estimated $11 million by a healthy amount, settling at somewhere between $13 to $14.5 million.

The sales room was full. Anticipation in the crowd was palpable. Opening lots, one by one, exceeded estimates. Telephone bidders made themselves evident from the start, in all they accounted for 1/3 of the sale’s winning bidders.

Three antiquities lots #’s 48, 49 and 50 sailed over estimates in frenzied bidding; the luscious olive-yellow glass amulet with its menorah motif, a Byzantine bronze oil lamp with its ‘menorah’ handle and the Byzantine amber glass bottle with its ‘menorah’ motif, preceded one of the sales principle lots – the North German Bronze lion-form, late 12 century Aquamanile; the first lot of many to crack 6 figures.

Perhaps you don’t have to be Jewish to eat Levy’s rye bread, but you do have to be Jewish to feel that special solemn ‘magic’ of a Torah being paraded down the aisle of a Synagogue. Lot 77, an important, Italian silver Torah crown and pair of Torah finials (Venice 18th century) was magnificent. Pendant from the finials were bells on chains meant to ring on their own, and clang as well, against the inside of the Torah crown. If vision could translate into sound, I could hear the processional cacophony of sounds proclaiming G-d’s majesty. Conceptually these finials and Torah crown are awesome, their silver-smithing inspired. It brought one of the sale’s high prices at $360,000 hammer – but that would be the price of a relatively minor work of art in an evening painting sale.

Zealous collectors bid and bid. Estimates were eclipsed over and over. The sale of a beautiful, priceless Omer Calendar, Germany c.1830 (lot 178) blew past estimate to $150,000., purchased by a young woman who came only for that single lot, then left the salesroom.

Bidder #270 bought several important lots. She was described to me as a serious collector, but a first time buyer of Judaica, at least at Sotheby’s. Well advised, or personally knowledgeable, she chose several lots well – outbid competition, and scored well, taking lot 84 (Lord Mayor’s Dish dated 1719 for $270,000.); lot 198 (Hungarian Jewel set silver gilt miniature 1842 Torah Crown and Shield for $85,000.); lot 222 (the rare Maurycy Gottlieb portrait c.1856-79 for $75,000.)

Dealers did well representing clients, and their own accounts. Jonathan Greenstein, Cedarhurst NY has an eye for fine Judaica, purchasing numbers of exquisite lots. Neir Arbach from Israel represented several clients, bidding actively with a dizzying number of paddles. And, of the three active auction houses in Israel dealing in Judaica, only Meron Eren of Kedem Auction was active on the floor.

As one who began dealing in American paintings in the early 1960’s, well before the Scull sale, and in photography in 1968, I know what it is to be early in the market. If in 2008, a fragment of a page of a Koran brought an auction record of $4.8 million. The Lincoln ‘Little People’ one page letter brought $3.4 million at Sotheby’s NY in 2008. In the same year Andre Breton’s Surrealist Manifesto brought $3 million (with a pre-sale estimate of $5-800,000.) and a Marco Polo MS brought $1.3 million; the obvious conclusion is: the collecting of Judaica is in its infancy!!

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