Dorotheum breaks records

The Dorotheum has been exceptionally successful in 2013. They have been breaking their own records for modern, contemporary and silver auctions, and a recent Old Masters sale ranked second best in the auction house’s history.

Most noteworthy was the world record price for a piece by Austrian painter Hans Makart. The painting, The Death of Cleopatra, went to an American bidder for €757,300. The contemporary art category set multiple records, including a top price of €215,380 for a watercolour by Viennese favourite Friedensreich Hundertwasser. The living artist Wolfgang Hutter of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism set a world record price for his painting The Widow, which sold for €238,200.

In the silver category, a samovar once belonging to Tsar Alexander I fetched €122,300, a much higher price than was anticipated. A quite unusual lot, a lock of hair from Emperor Franz Joseph I, sold for €13,720.

Other auction categories that have seen record sales this year were Modernism, Art Nouveau and classic cars.