Old Master Paintings

Christie’s is a market leader in Old Master Paintings, and has repeatedly set records in auctions and private sales.

In 2017, Christie’s made history, selling Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi for $450 million — more than double the previous record for any work of art sold at auction. This achievement followed our private sale to the French and Dutch states in 2016 of a pair of full-length portraits by Rembrandt for €160 million — currently, the highest price paid privately for any Old Master piece. In July 2016, Christie’s was delighted to sell Rubens’ Lot and his Daughters for £44.9 million — the third highest price ever achieved for an Old Master painting at auction.

Christie’s conducts Old Master auctions in London in July and December; New York in January and May and Paris in June. Attracting a range of international clients throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, these sales are dedicated to over half a millennium of art: from the Italian gold ground artists of the 14th and early 15th centuries such as Taddeo Gaddi and Lorenzo Monaco, to the early Netherland, Renaissance and Mannerist painters such as Hans Memling, Joos van Cleve, Gerard David, Lucas Cranach, Titian, Sandro Botticelli and El Greco.

Our international team of experts is based across the Americas, Europe and Asia and is always available for free and confidential valuations. Please contact our specialists if you would like to discuss selling or buying in this vibrant market.

The image depicts a classical painting of three figures, one pouring a drink and the others engaged with a bowl of fruits, adorned in draped clothing and set against a richly colored backdrop.

Upcoming auctions

VIEW PAST AUCTIONS

28 Nov - 12 Dec
Online
Les Stern : une famille de collectionneurs - the Online Sale
Paris
11 Dec
Live
Les Stern: une famille de collectionneurs
Paris
4 Feb
Live
Old Masters
New York
5 Feb
Live
Old Master and British Drawings
New York

Les Stern : une famille de col auction at Christies

28 Nov - 12 Dec

Online

Les Stern : une famille de collectionneurs - the Online Sale

Paris

Les Stern: une famille de coll auction at Christies

11 Dec

Live

Les Stern: une famille de collectionneurs

Paris

4 Feb

Live

Old Masters

New York

Old Master and British Drawing auction at Christies

5 Feb

Live

Old Master and British Drawings

New York

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Contact us

From free valuations to market advice, our specialists are here to answer your questions.

Andrew Fletcher
Global Head, Old Masters
+44 (0) 20 7389 2344
afletcher@christies.com
London, New York
Andrew joined Christie’s in 2022 assuming overall responsibility for the international Old Masters department. Previously Andrew spent nearly 20 years at Sotheby’s, most recently as head of the Old Masters department, Europe, during which time he oversaw many of the department’s most successful auction sales. Andrew was the co-architect of the £150m pioneering sale ‘Rembrandt to Richter’ in 2020 during the pandemic, the first major evening sale to combine Old Masters with Impressionist, Contemporary and Modern British Art. He has been particularly focused on growing private sales in the field and has been instrumental in the development of the market for Old Masters in Asia. Andrew’s particular passion lies in the early Netherlandish and Italian schools.
Henry Pettifer
International Deputy Chairman
+44 (0)20 7389 2084
hpettifer@christies.com
London
John Stainton
International Deputy Chairman
+44 (0)20 7389 2945
jstainton@christies.com
London
John Stainton is Deputy Chairman of Christie’s Old Master Paintings department. John joined the company in 1990 after completing a two-year diploma at Christie's Education, and was appointed Head of Department, British Pictures 1500-1850, in 1994. In 2007 John became an International Director of the merged Old Master & British Paintings department.

Major works which John has worked closely on in recent years include J.M.W. Turner’s Giudecca, La Donna della Salute and San Giorgio, Venice (2006; US$35.8M), George Stubbs’ Gimcrack on Newmarket Heath (2011; £22.4M), and John Constable’s The Lock (2012; £22.4M), each representing world record prices. John also handles major private and institutional sales.

While British Painting – a field whose market Christie’s consistently dominates – remains a passion, John works across all schools of European Old Masters. In 2014 John curated the highly successful ‘Art of the Horse’ private selling exhibition which toured to Shanghai and Hong Kong, comprising Asian and Western works of art, from Antiquity to the present day. John leads the Old Master department’s work in Asia.
Letizia Treves
Global Head of Research & Expertise
+44 (0)20 7389 5206
ltreves@christies.com
London
Letizia began her career in Old Master Paintings at Sotheby’s in 1996, becoming worldwide specialist in Italian paintings. In 2013 she assumed the position of Curator of later Italian, Spanish and French 17th-century paintings at The National Gallery, London. Whilst there, she championed several acquisitions in her area and curated numerous exhibitions, including Beyond Caravaggio (2016) and Artemisia (2020). Letizia left the museum in 2022 and, after a period as Senior Partner at Moretti Fine Art in London, has taken on the role of Global Head of Research & Expertise in Old Masters.
Francis Russell
Deputy Chairman, UK
+44 (0)20 7389 2075
frussell@christies.com
London
Francis Russell has been a specialist at Christie’s since 1972, and is a former Head of the International Old Master Picture Department. A well-known authority in the field of Italian Old Masters – and in particular the art of the Umbrian Renaissance, Italian portraiture and view-paintings of the 18th Century – as well as the history of British collecting. He advised on the selection of paintings and assisted on the catalogue for the Treasure Houses of Britain exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and has published discoveries by artists as varied as Fra Angelico, Pontormo and Wright of Derby. Mr. Russell served on the Art Panel of the National Trust. He has written about Italian and English paintings and aspects of the history of collections for scholarly publications such as Country Life and The Burlington Magazine. His books include John, 3rd Earl of Bute: Patron and Collector, 2004, Places in Italy, 2007, Places in Turkey, 2010, Places in Syria, 2011 and Places in Jordan, 2012.
Clementine Sinclair
Senior Director, Head of Department
+44 (0)20 7389 2306
csinclair@christies.com
London
As Senior Director, Head of Department in London, Clementine is involved in overseeing the sourcing, cataloguing and research, and marketing of the sales. She started on the graduate training scheme at Christie’s in 2005, having completed a BA in History of Art at Cambridge and a Masters at the Courtauld Institute. Initially part of the Early British Pictures team, she joined the Old Masters department in 2007.

Clementine headed up the Day sale before taking on the responsibilities of running the Evening sales in London. In this role, she has had the privilege of managing the research and marketing of Constable’s Lock, which sold for £22.4m in 2012, and Rubens’ Lot and His Daughter, which realised a remarkable £44.8m in 2016, setting a new record price for an Old Master painting sold at Christie’s. She was also involved in the highly successful Defining British Art cross-category sale, which was held to mark Christie’s 250th anniversary in 2016.
Freddie de Rougemont
Director
+44 (0) 20 7389 2415
fderougemont@christies.com
London
Maja Markovic
Director, Head of Evening Sale
+44 20 7389 2090
mmarkovic@christies.com
London
Flavia Lefebvre D’Ovidio
Specialist
+44 (0)20 7752 3371
flefebvre@christies.com
London
John Hawley
Director, Head of Private Sales, EMEA
+1 212 974 4483
jhawley@christies.com
London, Hong Kong
John joined the Old Master Paintings team in New York in 2017 after spending several years in a curatorial position at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 2023, he relocated to London, where he now heads the department’s Private Sales activities in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. John works particularly closely with colleagues in Asia to grow the market for Old Masters in the region. In September 2025, Christie’s became the first major international auction house to sell a work by an Old Master at auction in Hong Kong with J.M.W. Turner’s The Grand Bridge at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire.

A specialist in Dutch and Flemish art of the 17th century, John has been responsible for a number of significant rediscoveries in his career, including works by Frans Hals and Rembrandt’s master, Pieter Lastman. He has also spearheaded a series of successful curated sales and private selling exhibitions on the art of the Lowlands, including Old Masters: Property from a Private Collection (2019), The Martin Feldstein Collection: Dutch Art in the Golden Age (2020) and Goyen, Goyen, Gone: An Online Selling Exhibition (2024-2025). John works closely with both private collectors and museums and has facilitated acquisitions by a number of America’s leading public institutions, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Toledo Museum of Art and Baltimore Museum of Art.

John holds degrees from the College of William and Mary (B.A., 2008), Institute of Fine Arts at New York University (M.A., 2010) and University of Virginia (Ph.D., 2015), where he wrote his dissertation on the drawings of Cornelis Visscher (1628/9-1658), on whom he is the authority.
Olivia Ghosh
Specialist
+33 (0)6 10 07 23 54
oghosh@christies.com
London, Paris
Olivia has worked at Christie’s since 2017, joining the Old Master Paintings Department in 2018 first as cataloguer and subsequently as specialist. She is now responsible for heading up the department’s biannual live sales in Paris. In addition to this, she is an auctioneer and charity auctioneer. Prior to joining Christie's, she was a Fellow in the Prints and Drawings Department at the British Museum. She speaks English, French and German, and has a specific interest in art of the British, French and Italian Schools.
Lucy Speelman
Junior Specialist, Head of Day Sale
+44 207 752 3074
lspeelman@christies.com
London
Lucy is a Junior Specialist in the Old Master Paintings department in London, where she heads up their biannual Part II sales. She came to Christie’s in 2017 as an Object Intelligence Researcher in Old Masters where she supported senior specialists with client strategy and art market research before joining the specialist team in 2022. Prior to joining Christie’s, Lucy completed her Master’s degree at the Courtauld Institute of Art specialising in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century painting in Italy and northern Europe, and read for her Bachelor’s in History of Art at the University of Bristol.
Isabella Manning
Junior Specialist
+44 20 7389 2553
imanning@christies.com
London
Sacha Sabadel
Senior Sale Coordinator
+44 (0)20 7389 2210
asabadel@christies.com
London
Amélie D’Arenberg
Sale Coordinator
+44 207 389 2581
aarenberg@christies.com
London
General Sale Enquires
+44 (0) 207839 9060
OnlineUK@christies.com
London