Versace-owned artworks sell for almost triple estimated value
Last Updated: Thursday, March 19, 2009 | 5:14 PM ET

Johann Zoffany's Portrait of Major George Maule was pulled from the London auction of art from the late Gianni Versace's Lake Como residence, on suspicions that it may have been stolen. (Matt Dunham/Associated Press)

Works of art that belonged to Gianni Versace sold at a London auction on Thursday for almost three times the presale estimate, despite the fact that a star attraction had been pulled on suspicions its was stolen.

In 12 hours of heated bidding, the 545-lot sale of the treasures from the late fashion designer's 19th-century Italian mansion raised $15.4 million Cdn at the Sotheby's auction, compared with the $5.7 million estimate of what the art objects would bring.

This came in spite of the withdrawal of the Portrait of Major George Maule by 18th century German artist Johann Zoffany. The flagship lot was removed after a direct descendant of the portrait's subject contacted the Art Loss Register, the world's largest private database of lost and stolen art.

The family member had seen a photo of the portrait in London's Evening Standard newspaper and recognized the work as one that had hung over the mantelpiece of the family home years before.

In the sale calendar, Sotheby's described the work, which was expected to sell for up to $108,000, as "previously untraced and uncatalogued."

Checks to establish the painting's provenance may have proven fruitless when Versace purchased it, because the Art Loss Register was only established in 1991, the London Times noted. And even if the painting was stolen, the Times added, Versace's estate may still own it because the statue of limitations on stolen work expires after six years in Britain and 10 years in Italy.

Versace, who was shot to death on the steps of his Miami home in 1997, had decorated his Villa Fontanelle in the opulent neo-classical style of the era of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The house, situated on Lake Como and the venue of parties attended by Elton John, Sting and Madonna and Diana, the late Princess of Wales, was sold last year by the Versace family, who consigned the auction items.

The biggest sale of Thursday's auction was a pair of Italian cherrywood bookcases from Versace's bedroom, which sold for $988,000 and $1.2 million respectively, more than four times estimates.

A pair of plaster statues of wrestlers, copied in the 19th century from originals by Venetian sculptor Antonio Canova, sold for $890,000 to a telephone buyer, more than 10 times the $82,000 estimate.

The Versace auction underscores the popularity of celebrity art collections at a time when art values have fallen sharply because of the global recession.

Before the sale, 500 buyers had placed more than 2,000 bids with Sotheby's.
Christie's auction house recently sold the art collection of late French designer Yves Saint Laurent for more than $600 million.