Day-Old Sale Record Broken by Same Artist

The American auction record of $2.93 million for an Old Master painting set Thursday was smashed Friday by the sale of another painting by the same Dutch artist for $6.6 million, auction officials said.

A 5-by-8-foot still life featuring fruit, flowers, lobsters on a Ming dish, elaborate silver, seashells and a lute by Jan Davidsz de Heem, painted in 1642 for King Charles I for Windsor Castle, was sold Friday to a telephone bidder at an auction of 159 Old Master paintings at Christie’s gallery. The purchaser was identified only as “a private collector.”

The sale brought a total of $11.3 million, a record for a one-session American auction of Old Master works, officials said.

The previous, day-old record for an Old Master was set at Sotheby’s galleries Thursday with the purchase of an elaborate 1649 De Heem still life featuring fruit, shellfish and silver by Thomas T. Brod, a London dealer.