Artmark auction sales at almost 6.6 ml euros in H1

Sales at Artmark auction house in the first half of the year totaled 6.58 million euros, the highest-selling lot being the Rombac 1-11 presidential plane used by former state leaders Ion Iliescu and Traian Basescu, the auction house said in a release. In H1 2021 the total volume of Artmark auctions increased 7 percent from 6.16 million euros in the first half of 2020 to 6.58 million euros. Contemporary and Romanian avantgarde art saw the most substantial increase in the first half of the year, with sales growing from 994,000 euros in the first half of 2020 to 1.5 million euros in the first half of this year. Sales of heritage art kept in line with the previous year - 2.38 million euros in H1 2021 compared to 2.39 million euros in the first half of 2020. Topping the highest selling lots in the first half of the year is the last Rombac 1-11 plane used for the official flights of Presidents Ion Iliescu and Traian Basescu, which was auctioned off this May for 165,000 euros. Next is Ion Tuculescu's Noaptea Orasului/City Night - with 140,000 euros; an Enigma M2-3 ciphering machine used by the German army in WW II - which sold for 135,000 euros; Adrian Ghenie's Untitled painting - 129,000 euros; Nicolae Ceausescu's Super One-Eleven presidential plane - 120,000 euros; Nicolae Vermont's painting La Pian/At the Piano - 110,000 euros; Ion Tuculescu's Campie cu Toteme/Totem Field - 110,000 euros; Adrian Ghenie's Nova - 110,000 euros; Nicolae Tonitza's - Intimitate/Intimacy - 105,000 euros; and Micuta Unguroaica/Little Hungarian Girl, also by Tonitza - 100,000 euros. The top selling lots fetched a total of 1.22 million euros. The last Artmark session this semester took place on Thursday night. The lots auctioned off included two flat caps that belonged to Nicolae Ceausescu, which sold for 900 euros each, and two photographs taken by Aziz Eloui Bey and Lee Miller with a handwritten drawing and signature by Constantin Brancusi - 2,500 euros each. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Peia, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Simona Klodnischi, editor: Adina Panaitescu)