All artworks included in the Darius V\u00e2lcov Collection were successfully sold at the auction organized by the Artmark auction house on Tuesday, February 17, in Bucharest.<\/p>\n
The event lasted nearly three hours and presented the public with 34 works, namely oil paintings, watercolors, gouaches, serigraphs, and drawings, an important ensemble of works with museum value. Many were signed by canonical and internationally recognized artists.<\/p>\n
Darius V\u00e2lcov, former Social Democrat finance minister and mayor of Slatina, was extradited from Italy in 2023 and jailed for influence peddling and money laundering. The sale of artworks in his collection was\u00a0initiated by ANAF Craiova to recover the damages established by a final criminal ruling.<\/p>\n
Before their sale, the paintings were displayed both at the Artmark Galleries headquarters (January 16\u2013February 17) and in a traveling exhibition in Craiova (February 5\u20136).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pieces were carefully selected, and they are very good. Although we are now in the month dedicated to our national sculptor Constantin Br\u00e2ncu\u0219i, obviously Nicolae Grigorescu remains one of the important landmarks, not only of our culture but also of our identity,\u201d said art historian C\u0103t\u0103lin Davidescu.<\/p>\n
Among the most important results of the evening is a drawing by Pablo Picasso, \u201cBullfight Scene\u201d (created in 1959), which was sold for EUR 28,000, far above the starting price of EUR 8,000. This is the first time a Picasso work (aside from engravings or serigraphs) has ever been offered at an art auction in Romania.<\/p>\n
The most spectacular sales belong, as usual, to Nicolae Grigorescu, the artist who also holds the record for the highest sales on the Romanian art market. Two Grigorescu paintings, namely the\u00a0 \u201cOx Cart, Morning Road\u201d and \u201cOx Cart, at Dusk,\u201d sold at the auction for EUR 170,000 each.<\/p>\n
In the same auction, the three small paintings by Nicolae Tonitza, namely \u201cPortrait of Ecaterina\u201d (1918), the gouache \u201cTatars in Balcic\u201d (late 1930s), and \u201cLandscape in France\u201d (1920s), sold for EUR 76,000, EUR 30,000, and EUR 12,000, respectively, while the painting by Victor Brauner titled \u201cLa relation\u201d (1952) was sold for EUR 150,000, three times its starting price.<\/p>\n
The auction achieved a 100% sell-through rate. This is a rare performance on the local market, equivalent to what major international houses call a \u201cWhite Glove\u201d result.<\/p>\n
The next event of Artmark Galleries is the Postwar and Contemporary Art Auction, organized on Thursday, February 19, at 6:00 PM, also at Palatul Cesianu-Racovi\u021b\u0103 and online. The auction has a Br\u00e2ncu\u0219i anniversary character.<\/p>\n